We all deserve to breathe fresh and clean air, allow our little ones to play outside, and enjoy summer nights out with our families and loved ones. As world cups viewing parties take place across the city, residents in Boyle Heights and East LA are left to face and confront a different reality.

The Lineage warehouse fire that began on Wednesday, June 17th, in Boyle Heights, burned for a week spewing plumes of smoke with harmful particles pushed across the region and beyond with inadequate response from the city and county. This is not the first time we experienced a crises. Just a few weeks ago, 25,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled into our waterways and toxic crude oil fumes were released into the air. Over and over, history shows us that our communities bear the brunt of both natural and man-made disasters.

When environmental catastrophes happen, our government’s response should be swift to center the community’s safety and health, ensure accountability from corporations polluting our neighborhoods and strengthen laws to make our community more environmentally and climate resilient.

Although the Lineage warehouse fire is now “controlled.” It doesn’t mean its harm and its impact is over, at least not for the people who call Boyle Heights, East LA and the Eastside their home. It is up to us to demand what we deserve from our elected leaders and rewrite our future. We take care of each other.

We are demanding:

1. Demand #1: Immediate evacuation of those living directly in the affected areas. Provide for hotel vouchers, transportation vouchers, and food vouchers for evacuees
2. Demand #2: Ensure full and proper testing and clean up of site, holding Lineage accountable to the pollution of the neighborhood
3. Demand #3: City and county officials work with state to release emergency state funding as soon as possible to meet the current needs.
4. Demand #4: Clear, science-based and accessible communication of information for community members
5. Demand #5: Immediate distribution of PPE (masks and air purifiers) to the community.
6. Demand #6: Temporary and long term protections for tenants and small businesses. Ensuring that tenants are able to remain housed and return to a healthy and habitable home mitigating the impacts of smoke, fire, and other environmental toxins. And that also, impacted small businesses are supported and protected.
7. Demand #7: Protect Street Vendors by ensuring street vendors receive proper PPE (P100 masks) for prolonged exposure as well as seeding the LA Street Vendor Coalition's solidarity fund to support street vendors and small businesses impacted by the fire.