Firefighters faced renewed challenges Saturday at a large Boyle Heights warehouse fire, where conditions remain highly complex as Mayor Karen Bass declared a local emergency to support response efforts.
At a Saturday morning briefing, L.A. Fire Department officials described the facility as a 500,000-square-foot commercial building, which is used to store frozen foods.
“The best way to describe this is like a giant cooler,” said L.A. Fire Chief Jamie Moore, who added that the structure was built with corrugated steel walls filled with dense foam insulation and reinforced interior steel panels. The building also used ammonia as part of its refrigeration system to maintain extremely low temperatures for frozen food storage.
Moore said the nature of the materials inside has made the fire difficult to control, as the foam insulation continues to burn slowly once ignited. Crews have relied on continuous helicopter water drops since the start of the incident to keep the structure cooled and prevent further escalation. Officials have also used large aerial ladder pipes, directing thousands of gallons of water per minute onto the building to contain the blaze.
85 million pounds of frozen food complicate firefighting efforts
With an estimated 85 million pounds of frozen food still inside the facility, firefighters say access is extremely limited due to zero visibility and unstable interior conditions. Officials stressed that crews are not entering the building or attempting to manually remove product. Instead, they are working to isolate unaffected areas while evaluating how to safely remove remaining goods before spoilage creates additional biohazard concerns.
“What we are trying to do now is to figure out the uninvolved area – how we can remove that food before it starts spoiling and becoming a biohazard concern,” Moore added.
Authorities said hazardous material risks have largely been mitigated, but the situation is now shifting toward potential biohazard issues as food inside the facility remains unrecovered. Officials emphasized that the priority is determining how to safely manage and remove the stored product while maintaining containment.
No injuries reported; no evacuation or shelter-in-place orders issued
Despite the severity of the incident, officials noted that no firefighters or civilians have been injured. Residents were advised that while smoke may be irritating—particularly for those sensitive to air quality—there is currently no order for evacuation or shelter-in-place.
“If you are sensitive to smoke, please be cognizant of that and try to stay indoors,” cautioned Moore. “But there is nothing in the air that is so dangerous that we have to do evacuations or even shelter-in-place.”
Mayor Karen Bass said her chief concern was for the public’s safety and health.
“We’re not concerned in terms of the fire spreading or anything like that. But we are concerned about the biohazard smoke. No smoke is good, but especially the smoke that could be toxic because of the chemicals that were needed to keep the food frozen in the facility,” Bass said.
Two shelter locations have opened to support anyone affected by the fire, including at the Pecan Recreation Center, which is located at 145 S. Pecan Street, Los Angeles, CA 90033 and City Terrace Park, which is located at 1126 N. Hazard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90063.
“We are going to be distributing masks and air filters, thank you to the Red Cross and our other partners,” said Bass, who said she anticipates talking to Governor Newsom later in the day to issue a joint emergency declaration.
“The Governor will be prepared to respond to our State of the Emergency when that is ready with whatever resources we need to do what the Chief described, which is moving the toxic materials away from here and disposing of them in a way that we will avert a major environmental disaster,” Bass said. “This is about prevention. This is about protecting our public’s health.”
Bass issues emergency declaration for resources
By afternoon, the mayor issued an emergency declaration, citing the scale and complexity of the incident.
The declaration is intended to provide the city with greater flexibility to coordinate emergency response efforts, secure additional resources, conduct environmental remediation, and seek state and federal assistance.
“While the LAFD continues making progress, this is a major, multi-jurisdictional incident. I’m issuing an emergency declaration to ensure the City has the resources it needs as this operation continues and to keep the community safe,” said Mayor Bass. “The City and County have opened spaces for families seeking relief from the smoke, and we will continue working around the clock and doing everything possible to put this fire out completely.”
Residents question long-term health impacts
As suppression efforts continued, residents voiced concerns about the potential long-term environmental and health impacts on the surrounding community.
Lineage, the building’s tenant and operator, released a statement indicating that the fire may have originated from work being performed by a third-party contractor handling solar panels on the roof.
“Lineage is the tenant-operator of this building,” the company said in a statement. “At this time, we believe the fire began while testing was being conducted by contractors of the third-party owner of the solar array located on the facility’s roof. This facility is not used for the storage of hazardous materials. It primarily serves as a temperature-controlled storage facility for frozen food before it makes its way to Greater Los Angeles area communities and beyond. Our understanding from LAFD and AQMD is that there have been no measurable ammonia concentrations recorded in the community since the fire started. Additionally, Lineage has proactively taken additional steps to pump out the ammonia and transport it offsite, removing the possibility of ammonia posing a risk to the community. This facility and the supply chain it connects with employ hundreds of local jobs. We are grateful that no team members at the facility were harmed.”
Meanwhile, fire crews continue to monitor the structure and adjust tactics as they work to contain the long-burning industrial fire and reduce environmental and health impacts to surrounding communities. Authorities cautioned that extinguishing the fire could take days or even weeks.
“I do want to be transparent to the public: this work is far from over. Because of the massive scale of this cold storage facility, deep pockets of smoldering fire remain buried under structural debris and solar panels,” said Los Angeles County Fire Chief Jon O’Brien. “Our city firefighting brothers and sisters are executing a meticulous, deeply challenging operation to bring the fire under control. Because of this, incident operations will continue into the foreseeable future.”
Residents who notice unusual odors, smoke, dust, or other air quality concerns are urged to report them to the South Coast Air Quality Management District. Complaints can be submitted by calling 1-800-CUT-SMOG (1-800-288-7664)or by using the agency’s online complaint system to report air contaminants both indoors and outdoors. To view current air quality, download the South Coast AQMD app or visit www.aqmd.gov/AQImap.