On January 8, AJMS had to close down due to the bad air quality that the Los Angeles wildfires had caused. Some other schools in the neighborhood also had to close because of the air quality. Students were dismissed around lunch time when their parents arrived for them to get picked up.
The wildfires started on January 7 around 6:15pm. Multiple wildfires started in Southern California, including in the Palisades and San Fernando Valley.
Firefighters tried to limit the spread of the fires, but there were multiple fires so it was difficult to contain them all.
The fires spread so quickly because there was lots of wind at that time which made the wildfires increase in size and to spread around making more fires. Some of the major fires that caused the most harm were the Palisades which burned 23,448 acres and killed at least 11 people and the Easton fire, which burned 14,021 acres and killed 17 people. They were the biggest fires and the hardest to contain due to the low resources the firefighters had and because of the strong wind.
Assistant Principal Wendy Perez said, ‘’I was worried that it was like windy and I was worried about the power going out so I had to make sure in the office that we have paper copies of all of your emergency contacts your schedules for the semester and PowerSchool information so that we can find you in case.’’
After the air quality kept getting worse the principal and office staff contacted parents to pick up their students because the air quality had gotten worse and would be bad for anyone to be out in those conditions.
AJMS eighth grader Joshua Leon said, ‘’It was normal but it was a little crowded in the gym there was a lot of parents lined up in the school gym.’’
Once the fire was more contained, all of the students from AJMS got a message sent to their parents saying they could go back to school on Monday January 13. However, since there were still multiple fires with lots of smoke and the air quality was bad to breathe, all the students had to be inside all the time while they were at school and no one was allowed to go outside.
Area Superintendent Xochitl Avellon said, ‘’I know how many of you had indoor lunches remember you were inside there you go it was because of the air quality because we checked it and then we said no we cannot have kids outside we need to go ahead and take precautions you were also offered a mask.’’
