During a heat wave, people working and cooking inside food trucks have to cope with temperatures that are at least 20 degrees higher than outside. Amber Frias reports for the NBC4 News at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Sep. 5, 2024.
As the sweltering conditions affect Southern California this week, people who depend on cooking and selling food from food trucks are coping with unbearable conditions.
“Many come for us. They know we open seven days a week,” Roberto Guzman, who owns the Alebrije's Grill food truck, said. “It’s hot, but you know we have to deal with it.”
Guzman, who has parked his food truck near Broadway Street and Edinger Avenue in Santa Ana for the last 23 years, said he cannot afford to lose any customers.
“There's no other way for us," he said.
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When the Thursday afternoon temperature reached 87 degrees in Santa Ana, the thermometer inside Guzman’s food truck read 97.5 degrees.
The temperature soared even further next to the grill in the truck to 109.5 degrees.
“Have you ever been to hell?” Guzman laughed while trying to get through one of the hottest days of the season.
One of the ways of keeping his employees safe, Guzman said, is to switch the workers from the grill, moving them to the front, and from the front to the back.
As another food truck, Mariscos El Yaquis, is facing similar challenges, a worker wear a portable fan around her neck as the fans inside the truck are not enough to keep cool.
While the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has safety regulations listed on its website for agriculture, construction, landscape and delivery workers, it does not specify the rules for food truck workers.
Cal/OSHA did not respond to a request for comment.
