Residents of about 20 homes remained under evacuation orders in the wake of this week’s explosive fire at a Maywood warehouse where magnesium and other metals were being stored, the sheriff’s department said Saturday.
Authorities permitted those who live on the south side of 52nd Street to go back into their homes Wednesday evening, but residents who live on the street’s north end — closer to the site of the blaze — haven’t been cleared yet to return home.
The cause of the cumbersome blaze remains under investigation, Robert Diaz of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said, adding that a damage assessment team is working on determining an estimate for the fire.
The blaze was fully extinguished and all units were cleared out of the area at 8 p.m. Thursday following a struggle spanning three days, Los Angeles County Supervising Fire Dispatcher Miguel Ornelas said.
On Friday, the South Coast Air Quality Management District announced that samples from areas around the fire scene had been tested, and a preliminary analysis “showed ambient metal concentrations did not exceed short- term health-based thresholds.
“The information …. only pertains to the results from preliminary metals sampling near the incident,” the SCAQMD said in a statement. “Additional laboratory analysis is still underway for other pollutants and from other sampling locations. Updates will be provided as results become available.”
The agency said that “because the air quality impacts from this fire incident are expected to only last, at most, a few days, the (information was) evaluated in the context of short-term air pollution exposures,” the statement said.
One sample was taken Tuesday about 50 feet southeast of the fire. Four samples were taken Wednesday: at Maywood and Fishburn elementary schools; at the Vernon Fire Station; and 35 feet west-northwest of the fire.
Officials said they wanted to analyze samples of the ash and residue that settled on local homes as a further measure of safety testing, in addition to the air samples that were analyzed.
The three-alarm fire in the 3500 block of Fruitland Avenue ripped through a pair of commercial buildings early Tuesday, sparking a series of strong explosions and sending a thick plume of noxious smoke over the region.
Firefighters found flames shooting through the roofs of two structures, one of which was a metal-recycling plant. Crews began pouring water on the flames, but the oxygen from the water created a chemical reaction with the burning magnesium, one of the metals being stored at the facility and awaiting recycling, producing what one fire official described as “fireballs” and setting off strong explosions.
Los Angeles County Fire Department Deputy Chief John Tripp said fire crews realized Wednesday that most of the magnesium in the warehouse had burned, allowing crews to again pour water on the remaining fire without fear of more explosions.
Many of the evacuated residents sought shelter at the Maywood YMCA. A sheriff’s official said 138 people spent Tuesday night at the shelter. About 60 were allowed to enter their homes Wednesday to retrieve some needed items.
The fire was reported at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday in a warehouse that serves Gemini Plastic Enterprises. County Fire Chief Daryl Osby said that in addition to magnesium, other metals such as coppers, zinc and lead were present at the metal-recycling plant, along with chemicals and propane.
“We had some very violent, ferocious explosions in the facility,” Osby said.
Crews were able to prevent the blaze from spreading from the two commercial structures that were destroyed to other businesses and nearby homes.
Citing court records, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Da Xiong Pan, the owner of the recycling facility, was recently charged with multiple felonies for alleged improper storage and disposal of hazardous materials at the site.
Pan, who owns Panda International Trading Co. at 3570 Fruitland Ave., pleaded not guilty to five felony charges last month, according to The Times.
—City News Service