Mayor Bass declares emergency as Boyle Heights warehouse fire rages on

Smoke from the Boyle Heights warehouse fire kept hanging over neighborhoods across Los Angeles on Saturday, turning a single building blaze into a public-health problem that touched residents, schools and outdoor workers far beyond the immediate block. Officials told people to stay indoors, close windows and doors, limit outdoor activity and keep pets inside as the smell of smoke reached most of the city and air-quality warnings remained in place.

The fire began shortly before 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at a cold-storage facility in the 1400 block of South Los Palos Street and was still burning four days later, with crews battling flare-ups and pouring large amounts of water into the building. The Los Angeles Fire Department described it as a very complex blaze, and no injuries have been reported. A shelter-in-place order covered the area around the warehouse before later being lifted.

Firefighters initially went on offense, then pulled back into defensive operations after the fire flared up again. Solar panels on the roof added another layer of difficulty, and crews also had to contend with large stacks of palletized food packed inside the building. Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said the stacks rose to about two and a half stories, making it hard for crews to get inside and work on top of the structure.

Two emergency shelters opened for displaced residents at Pecan Recreation Center, 145 S. Pecan St., and City Terrace Park, 1126 N. Hazard Ave. Officials said those sheltering there could find a safe place to stay while air-quality warnings remained in effect. South Coast AQMD extended a particle pollution advisory through Saturday at 12:30 p.m., and Los Angeles County Public Health said it was monitoring conditions and staying in communication with response partners.

The warehouse has been identified in reporting as a Lineage Logistics cold-storage site, and officials said roughly 85 million pounds of frozen food could be affected inside. That raised concerns not only about the fire itself, but also about spoiled food and possible biohazard risks as city leaders prepared a joint emergency declaration to address the damage.

Mayor Karen Bass declared a local emergency to support response efforts as the city moved to contain the fire and assess its wider fallout. The cause remained under investigation, even as crews stayed on scene to knock down hot spots and push toward full containment.