The hangar fire in Tustin is still burning, prompting Orange County supervisors to approve an emergency declaration during a special meeting on Monday.
The emergency proclamation removes some legal hurdles and allows the county to expedite the arrival of state and federal resources.
Listen and subscribe to The L.A. Local podcast: your TL;DR for what's happening in Southern California
O.C. supervisor Don Wagner told KNX News reporter Margaret Carrero, "It also does limit to a certain extent some of the environmental hoops that one needs to jump through in doing this sort of remediation work outside of a disaster."
During the meeting, Supervisor Wagner noted that a request for the South Coast Air Quality Management District to do broader air quality testing was denied but believes this is because they feel that further testing is unnecessary.
"Where they felt the need to do testing, they were not shy about setting up testing stations. Beyond the local environment, they were of the opinion the air was sufficiently clean," Wagner said. For those directly around the site of the fire, he does encourage closing windows and says masking up is probably wise if you have to be outside.
Michelle Anderson, the Director of Emergency Services with the Orange County Sheriff's Department, said the AQMD and the EPA have people embedded in the incident management team to try and facilitate the ongoing air quality concerns.
Tustin Mayor Austin Lumbard wants residents to know they've been working nonstop around the clock but asks for grace as the fire continues to burn, saying, "Until we put the fire out, it's a moving target. At this point, we can't go clean up debris if more debris is going to be coming on top of it."
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok