Los Angeles fire investigators were unable to determine the cause of the fire that erupted inside a Boyle Heights cold food storage warehouse in June, according to the LA City Fire Department (LAFD) Tuesday.
The blaze inside Lineage Logistics’ 500,000-square-foot facility on Los Palos Street was first reported on June 17, but the stubborn fire was difficult to put out, with persistent flare-ups and reignitions. By the time the flames were completely extinguished after eight days, neighbors and business owners had first grappled with ash and smoke. Then, an unbearable stench, rodents and pests plagued the neighborhood for more than two months.
Fire investigators believe the blaze started from some sort of electrical event on the roof near solar panels. But despite a “thorough and comprehensive investigation,” they could not “conclusively” name the specific cause.
NBC Los Angeles requested a full report from the LAFD. The complete investigation report, which the public needs to purchase, “will be made available in accordance with applicable City policies and public records requirements,” the LAFD said.
LA Councilmember Ysabel Jurado whose district includes Boyle Heights slammed the report, saying it “does nothing to alleviate” what neighbors and businessowners had to endure for months, including health hazards.
“The fact that we still cannot explain how this catastrophe began is yet another reason I will continue opposing any permits to rebuild this facility,” Jurado said in a statement. “Boyle Heights should not be asked to accept a rebuilt operation while residents continue to bear the consequences and fundamental safety questions remain unresolved. This community deserves recovery, accountability and meaningful safeguards—not a rush to rebuild.”
Images from NewsChopper4 in June already showed massive flames and smoke coming from the roof of the building.
Lineage Logistics also said then that it filed a lawsuit against the operator of a solar array on the building’s rooftop in connection with the fire.
In its lawsuit against Altus Power Inc. and contractor Pearce Services, filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Lineage Logistics claims the companies ignored safety warnings and caused the fire on the 500,000-square-foot warehouse rooftop.
“This lawsuit is about Altus and Pearce starting this fire and then being nowhere to be found when the community needed help,” Greg Lehmkuhl, president/CEO of Lineage, said in a statement announcing the legal action. “From the moment it started, Lineage stood alone in supporting remediation and cleanup efforts for a neighborhood impacted through absolutely no fault of our own.”
A representative of Los Palos Street Operating, a subsidiary of Altus, issued a statement saying Lineage was simply trying to deflect attention from its own culpability in the fire.
“Lineage’s statement is riddled with misinformation in a blatant attempt to deflect blame for their role in this matter, including any damage caused by the release of substances from the warehouse, not the solar panel,” according to the statement.
Earlier this month, the warehouse operator said it completed the full cleanup of food waste at its cold storage facility, two months after the fire broke out.
As the mop-up effort continued, with Lineage unable to meet the city-mandated cleanup deadlines, more than 4,900 complaints about rotten, sour and garbage-like scents were sent to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Air quality regulators also issued 39 notices of violations from June 12 through Aug. 28, the agency said.
According to Lineage, the cleanup and remediation efforts cost more than $100 million.
Lineage, the building’s tenant-operator, leases the rooftop to a third-party solar panel company that installed a solar array on top of the structure. The company has said it believes the fire started when subcontractors were working on the solar panels.
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