A massive Los Angeles warehouse fire is now rotting 85 million pounds of food while city officials scramble to explain why it took days — and an emergency declaration — to get the blaze under control.
Story Highlights
- A fire at a nearly 500,000-square-foot Lineage Logistics cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights broke out Wednesday after contractors worked on rooftop solar panels, triggering an ammonia leak and multiple small explosions.
- Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass declared a local emergency on Saturday — four days into the blaze — saying the city needed more resources to continue fighting the stubborn fire.
- The warehouse held 85 million pounds of frozen meat, fish, and poultry, all of which began to spoil as internal temperatures climbed to 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Air monitors found bromine and chlorine in the smoke, but levels stayed below health thresholds; fire officials said air quality posed no immediate public threat.
Fire Breaks Out, Ammonia Leak Follows
The fire started around 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at Lineage Logistics’ cold-storage facility at 1400 South Los Palos Street in Boyle Heights. Contractors were testing equipment on a rooftop solar panel array when flames broke out and spread quickly across the roof. The fire then hit an ammonia refrigeration line, causing it to off-gas and setting off several small explosions. Firefighters had to pull back from an aggressive interior attack and switch to defensive tactics. [2]
The Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) issued a shelter-in-place order for nearby neighborhoods. Residents from Boyle Heights to East Los Angeles were told to stay indoors, close windows, and avoid outdoor activity. The South Coast Air Quality Management District deployed mobile monitors and found elevated particulate matter near the site, though it reported no ammonia spike in the surrounding community. [6] Lineage confirmed it pumped out the on-site ammonia tanks and moved them off-site, removing that specific risk.
85 Million Pounds of Food Now Spoiling
The scale of the food loss is staggering. The warehouse held roughly 85 million pounds of frozen food — meat, fish, and poultry — stacked on 75,000 pallets inside what LAFD Chief Jaime Moore described as “a giant cooler.” [2] As the fire burned for days, the internal temperature rose to 45 degrees Fahrenheit and the food began to rot. Moore warned of potential biohazard risks from the decomposing inventory, adding a second major challenge on top of the fire itself.
Fighting the fire proved extremely difficult. The building’s walls are corrugated steel packed with dense foam insulation. Moore said crews had “zero visibility inside” and could not get water to the deepest parts of the fire. He noted that a similar cold-storage fire took 60 days to fully extinguish. [2] The LAFD planned extended on-site operations to chase hot spots buried deep inside the massive structure.
Emergency Declaration Comes on Day Four
Mayor Bass waited until Saturday — the fourth day of the fire — to declare a local emergency. “This is a substantial incident involving multiple jurisdictions,” Bass said. “I am declaring an emergency to guarantee that the city has the necessary resources.” [16] The declaration allows the city to unlock additional state and mutual-aid support. Bass also called for stronger safety regulations and better protections for working-class communities like Boyle Heights.
🚨🇺🇸#BREAKING | NEWS ⚠️
Airdrops continue for the Medline cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. LAFD wants to collapse the roof as they continue to try to gain control of the fire which reignited and is still producing toxic smoke.A Boeing CH-470 Chinook with… pic.twitter.com/hep1iZc4VV
— Todd Paron🇺🇸🇬🇷🎧👽 (@tparon) June 21, 2026
Air monitors did detect low-level hydrogen fluoride on Thursday — a byproduct of burning lithium-ion batteries — along with trace amounts of bromine and chlorine. The South Coast Air Quality Management District said those levels stayed “below short-term health-based exposure thresholds” and were not expected to cause health problems. [8] Still, a particle pollution advisory remained in effect through Saturday afternoon, and residents with respiratory conditions were urged to stay inside and use air purifiers. No injuries were reported throughout the entire incident.
Lineage Logistics Faces Past Safety Scrutiny
Lineage Logistics is not a stranger to controversy. The company previously faced federal penalties for failing to comply with safety rules designed to prevent accidental releases of anhydrous ammonia at a facility in Iowa. Lineage also had a smaller fire at this same Boyle Heights location in 2024. [6] Those prior incidents raise fair questions about whether the company maintained its refrigeration systems and rooftop equipment to the standard required at a facility storing tens of millions of pounds of food in a densely populated neighborhood.
For Boyle Heights residents, the fire is one more burden on a community that already deals with significant industrial activity nearby. The city opened smoke relief centers at Pecan Park Recreation Center and City Terrace Park for displaced or affected residents. Officials said no one was forced to evacuate their homes permanently, but many people across a wide area — including San Gabriel, Burbank, and downtown Los Angeles — reported thick smoke, haze, and the smell of burning plastic lingering for days. [16]
Sources:
[2] Web – Boyle Heights shelter-in-place order lifted as LA firefighters …
[6] YouTube – L.A. cold storage warehouse erupts in toxic inferno
[8] Web – View all – Instagram
[16] Web – Toxic Ash Cloud from Boyle Heights Warehouse Fire Affects …