Jun 1, 2008 1:22 pm US/Pacific
Warnings Issued For Areas North, West Of Fire
UNIVERSAL CITY, Calif.
Despite warnings issued for residents living north and west of the massive Universal City fire to not breathe the acrid smoke, smog officials say there is little immediate hazard.
During the fire, Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Mike Brown asked residents of the Toluca Lake area, west of the fire, to "please close your windows or vacate the area until we got a full knockdown.
"We want to make everyone aware that, if they're receiving some of the smoke, to close their windows -- if it gets to bad, they can self-evacuate," Brown said.
Heavy smoke is apparently coming from burning videotapes and their plastic storage cases.
The region's air pollution control agency has a technician at the fire, according to Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
"If requested by the fire department, AQMD will take air samples," Atwood said. But by midday, that request had not been made.
"When we do take air samples from an industrial fire or a similar incident, we would then take these samples back to our lab in Diamond Bar, and the analysis takes several hours.
"The fire departments these days do have air quality measuring devices" that can be deployed on scene at fires, Atwood said.
"Any time you have a heavy industrial fire like this, you have the potential for several toxic ingredients in the smoke," Atwood said.
Richard E. Barrans, assistant director of PG Research Foundation in Darien, Illinois, said that many toxic substances are produced when plastics burn.
"Any carbon-based material produces hazardous products under most combustion conditions, mostly due to incomplete combustion," Barrans wrote.
"Some types of plastic contain elements besides the standard carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Nylons contain nitrogen, and polyvinyl chloride contains, of course, chlorine."
But the AQMD spokesman has not speculated on what chemicals are in the burning videotape cases and magnetic tapes.
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