On Wednesday January 8th, Los Angeles wildfires started to affect our school campus with bad air quality, causing Animo Jefferson Charter Middle School to close.
The Los Angeles fires started on the morning of January 7th. They first broke out in the area of Palisades. When Santa Ana winds picked up, it caused the fire to spread out more and burn around 23,000 acres, killing 12 people. After that, more fires started to erupt like the Eaton fire and the Hurst fire.
“So Mr. Flota was in a meeting and he started getting messages and calls from our area superintendent because he had been getting told that LAUSD was worried about the air quality,“ Assistant Principal Ms. Perez said.
Ms. Perez said how LAUSD was worried about bad air quality and our Principal Mr. Flota was being warned about the air quality which caused our school to close on Wednesday morning.
“Have you guys seen the color scales? Green is good, yellow is okay and orange … mine showed me that it got to purple on Wednesday,” said Ms. Perez.
Ms. Perez was saying how the color scale that monitors air quality was purple which means the air around school was very unhealthy and hazardous.
“I come from Long Beach and it’s clear in Long Beach, so when I drove in to school and saw a cloud I was surprised because that’s not where the fires are, so the closer I got to school the darker it was getting,” said Ms Perez.
Ms. Perez meant that when she got near the school it was getting darker and she was surprised because she lives in Long Beach where it was clear.
“I didn’t check the air quality but I checked it this week, the air quality was so bad we had to cancel SRLA,” said counseling intern and Animo Ralph Bunche SRLA coach, Mr. Torres.
