LBFD Capt. Jim Arvizu told LBREPORT.com in the 10:00 p.m. hour that Fire dispatch received less than half a dozen calls...but LBREPORT.com notices that Justin Rudd's LongBeachCalif Facebook page accumulated over 80 comments by 10:00 p.m. (excerpts below.)

An LBREPORT.com reader in the Orange/4th St. area told us shortly before 9:00 p.m., "It has smelled for three hours now. I left home to get away from it, drove back and it still smells, left again. In Seal Beach now, doesn't smell here. Considering a hotel room, it is THAT bad."

Social network respondents variously described the smell as similar to a hair permanent solution, or roof tar, or asphalt, or petroleum-like...and many of them described the odor as intense.

Below are some comments from the Justin Rudd's LongBeachCalif Facebook page:

Anyone know what the tar-like smell is?...Cherry/3rd St area...

Smells like burnt hair over here in Naples.

Super strong on 4th and redondo

I smell it at 7th and pacific too. It's really bad over here. It's so hot we need to open the window but the air is too bad to breathe in. So it's 90 degrees in our apartment and there is nothing we can do about it

I thought maybe someone was crazy enough to tar their roof in this heat. Smells awful here too...Alamitos & 5th.

Smells like sulfur

I smelled that awful odor when I got to 3rd and Alamitos

I don't know, but over here, it smell's like burning Asphalt or Rubber, oil maybe?

We thought it smelled like perm solution, too!

Smells bad by Cesar Chavez park

The smell won't leave our apartment now. Giving us all migraines. Cherry and 1st (Bixby Park) been smelling for about 4.5 hours now.

2nd and kennebeck, smelling it too...

Daisy and 10th. Gave us all a migraine

Ocean & Pine. I smell it, too...

Yep down here on 7th and atl it stinks bad

Yes me too I'm on 8th and magnolia.

Nasty smellin at long Beach blvd and first

Real bad at 3rd and Alamitos! Headache and allergies

I smelled it earlier around PCH/Redondo.

It had permeated inside the whole apt had to shut the Windows which made my headache and nausea only worse trapping the heat in...I'm still not feeling good....

Smells like sulfur to me too at 10th & Pine. Or burnt rubber...

It is over by 4th and Orange too.

I have smelled it often, 4th and chestnut, but never knew what it was.

OMG it's making me sick!

Ocean and Belmont...same thing all day.

7th and Walnut. Really strong at 5:00 pm...

It's horrible! I'm on 3rd and Cherry

It smells like tar downtown. i thought it was a street issue.

Really bad on 7th and Magnolia

15th and Elm the smell was nauseating...smelled like sulfur pretty bad

5th and junipero it's bad!

I smelled it on 7th/Ximeno as well

I'm at the Villages and it is really bad out here!

I smell it too...Alamitos and 1st

I live on Gladys and 7Th and can smell it here. what is it?

It's horrible.. I thought my condo was in fire..woke me up from my nap!!

I was wondering what was that burning smell

The South Coast Air Quality Management District routinely encourages residents to file a complaint when they detect a foul odor. The agency's Media Office Manager Sam Atwood told LBREPORT.com (in response to a Sept. 23, 2013 area stink mainly in the SE LB area):

...We [AQMD] always encourage residents to file a complaint when they detect a foul odor. They can do this 24/7 by calling 1-800-CUT-SMOG (288-7664) Residents also can report a complaint online at www.aqmd.gov. We need to receive complaints in order to be informed of odors. Fire departments and other emergency responders don’t always notify us of odor incidents in their jurisdiction.

When a caller calls our toll-free number after-hours or on the weekend (including Monday), a SCAQMD supervising inspector is immediately paged, day or night. If the caller leaves a phone number, the inspector calls that individual to get more information. At that point the supervising inspector can decide to send a field inspector out to meet with the complainant. If an odor is detectable, the inspector will attempt to track it to its source.

If the inspector can verify the odor and track it to its source, and if he or she can obtain signed complaint forms from at least six residents, the inspector can issue a Notice of Violation for nuisance odors. The source then has to fix the problem causing the odors and once that is accomplished, settle the violation with SCAQMD for a cash penalty and/or a Supplemental Environmental Project benefitting air quality above and beyond our rule requirements...

Odors can be difficult to track to a source, particularly if they are dispersed over a wide area...

In addition to the Sept. 23, 2013 mystery stink:

• On June 29, 2013 an area odor -- which smelled more like natural gas -- was felt so intensely that the Long Beach Gas Dept. put a recorded message on its telephone line indicating it had received a "high volume" of calls on the matter. AQMD later said it didn't know what it was, what it contained or from where it came. Two days later on July 2, 2013, a neighborhood in the southern central area of Long Beach reported a second stink (Tues. July 2) in the vicinity of Redondo Ave. at about 3rd and 4th Sts.

• On Oct. 25, 2012, residents of the Belmont Shore/ELB area variously reported a smell similar to rotten eggs or natural gas. AQMD said it received roughly 105 calls clustered mainly in Belmont Shore and areas slightly inland [into ELB].

• On September 18, 2011, a number of LBREPORT.com readers in SE and Eastern Long Beach reported smelling a strong odor, described as a natural gas type smell, from the 1 p.m. hour into at least the 3 p.m. hour.

SCAQMD usually doesn't provide the public with information about these odors (including identification of what adults and children were breathing and for what amount of time and in what concentrations), usually saying through a spokesperson that an inspector was sent but but by the time the inspector arrived, the smell was gone.

LBREPORT.com will update this page with further as we learn it.