Los Angeles warehouse fire keeps sending smoke over the city

Smoke from the Lineage Logistics warehouse in Boyle Heights was expected to keep drifting over nearby neighborhoods for at least three more days, leaving residents, workers and schools across the area to contend with a plume that officials said could rise and fall as crews ventilated the building, tore into hot spots and chased flare-ups. The Los Angeles Fire Department said the smoke remained visible from miles away, including downtown Los Angeles and the San Gabriel Valley, and continued to trigger air-quality warnings after the fire started Wednesday, June 17, around 2:30 p.m.

Chief Jaime Moore said Sunday that crews had made “incredible headway,” but the fire was still not finished. The blaze tore through a nearly 491,000-square-foot cold-storage warehouse at 1400 S. Los Palos St. after igniting on the roof near solar panels, then spread into the building’s interior. Fire officials said flames reached an ammonia line, causing off-gassing and several small explosions, a complication that forced crews into a prolonged, defensive fight inside a large industrial facility built to keep temperatures low and products moving.

Hazardous materials risks, including ammonia and hydrogen fluoride concerns, had largely been mitigated, but the smoke itself remained a public-health problem. Shelter-in-place orders were issued, lifted and then reissued during flare-ups, while the South Coast Air Quality Management District continued to warn about particle pollution. Officials said no injuries were reported, but the continuing smoke meant people living and working near Boyle Heights had to watch for changing conditions throughout the day, especially as wind and ventilation shifted what was visible in the air.

The scale of the response widened Saturday, June 20, when Mayor Karen Bass issued a local emergency declaration and Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency. California said it would send 5.5 million N95 masks, commercial-grade air purifiers, bottled water and extra air-quality monitoring to support the response. The fire has also renewed scrutiny of the site itself: NBC Los Angeles reported that firefighters responded to a solar-panel fire on the same building in August 2024, raising fresh questions about how well industrial fire risks in this corridor had been addressed before the latest blaze took hold.