Los Angeles warehouse fire sends smoke across Boyle Heights

Firefighters in Los Angeles remained locked in a difficult battle Monday against a massive cold storage warehouse fire near downtown, six days after flames broke out at a frozen-food facility packed with about 85 million pounds of food.

The roughly 500,000-square-foot building in Boyle Heights is insulated like a freezer and covered with solar panels. Smoke continued to billow from the site, which sits across the street from homes in the working-class neighborhood east of downtown, prompting city and air quality officials to urge residents to stay indoors or wear protective masks.

Authorities said a large warehouse fire can often be extinguished in a day, but fires in cold storage facilities can burn for weeks because their heavily insulated ceilings, roofs and walls make them hard to reach and ventilate.

Los Angeles firefighters have not entered the building because of dangerous conditions inside. Jamie Stewart, a Los Angeles Fire Department spokesperson, said the facility contains floor-to-ceiling heavy-duty steel rack shelving that poses a risk to crews. Firefighters also have been unable to quickly ventilate the roof, a step they would typically use to release gas and smoke and improve visibility inside a warehouse.

Instead, crews have been stripping away exterior walls on parts of the building and pouring heavy streams of water into the structure from outside. Stewart said it would take at least a few more days to extinguish the fire.

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore said the warehouse has rows of shelving about 65 feet tall and 650 feet long, loaded with pallets and boxes of frozen food. He compared the interior to a Costco or Home Depot warehouse store.

“I don’t know that we’ll ever get firefighters inside because the entire roof has been compromised and it is sitting on top of [those] 65-foot towers,” Moore said. “It’s extremely dangerous, and I don’t foresee ever putting our firefighters in that type of danger.”

The fire began Wednesday. Lineage Logistics, the Michigan-based company that operates the facility, said in a statement that the official cause has not been determined but that it believes the fire began while subcontractors were working on solar panels on the roof. The company said it is cooperating with fire officials.

Moore said preliminary information showed Lineage, which rents the warehouse, was leasing the roof to a solar company that was working on the panels when the fire started. “They attempted to try to extinguish it. They dialed 911, and it was off to the races,” he said.

The facility, called Big Bear, stores seafood, pork, beef and poultry before shipment to grocery stores and restaurants on the U.S. West Coast, according to Lineage’s website. A message seeking details about the food stored there and the companies affected was not immediately returned.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District extended a poor air quality warning until Tuesday afternoon, saying smoke from the fire continued to affect Boyle Heights and areas north and east of the blaze. Air quality officials said conditions around Boyle Heights remained very unhealthy Monday and that particulates were also affecting the San Gabriel Valley.

The smoke contains PM2.5, microscopic particles that can penetrate deep into the lungs. Light winds could push smoke in all directions and potentially affect other parts of metropolitan Los Angeles, the district said.

Residents in the most affected areas were told to avoid vigorous activity, close windows, doors and vents, turn off air conditioning and bring people and pets into an inside room. Health officials said anyone who must go outside in smoky conditions should wear an N95 or P100 mask.

Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents Boyle Heights, said residents want clearer information about what materials and chemicals were in the warehouse, what burned and what may still be burning. She said air quality results should be released in English and Spanish in terms residents can understand.

Families, workers and other residents are “seeing the smoke and smelling the odors and finding ash and debris near their homes and businesses,” Jurado said. “We still do not have enough clear information about what burned and what may still be burning.”