Lineage, the operator of the cold storage warehouse burning for days in Boyle Heights, is pointing the finger at another tenant, the massive solar array spread across the warehouse’s rooftop, as the responsible party for the destructive blaze.
Though no official cause has been determined yet, four employees of Pearce Services, a subcontractor working for the solar array’s owner, Altus Power, were on site June 17, the day the fire began, according to a statement from Pearce.
No one was injured.
“The cause of this incident is not known and remains under investigation,” says a statement on Pearce’s website. “We are cooperating fully with the Los Angeles Fire Department and other relevant agencies to provide all available information and support.”
Lineage, which donated $2 million to the California Community Impact Fund, has called on Altus to “join us getting the Boyle Heights community the support they desperately need.”
The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health opened investigations into both Lineage and Pearce on the day the fire began, according to its website.
Two small fires started earlier in the day, but the workers believed they had put out both, according to Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore. They called 911 when a third ignited, the chief said previously.
Neither Pearce, nor Altus, would say what work was being performed, but Moore on Sunday indicated the workers were trying to get the high-voltage panels back online after they were shut down in an earlier fire in 2024. Lineage, in its own statement, alleged Altus was performing tests on the panels.
Altus declined to answer questions. A spokesperson confirmed the solar array is owned by the company and said it is “cooperating fully with authorities.”
In the previous fire, the Fire Department responded at 9 a.m. Aug. 14, 2024, to thick smoke billowing from the building and found flames burning among a cluster of panels near the center of the nearly 500,000-square-foot warehouse’s roof.
The size of the building and the split-level roof made the ladder pipes on the department’s aerial ladder trucks ineffective. Firefighters had to climb onto the roof and use extension ladders and hand lines to battle the fire, according to a press release at the time.
More than 80 firefighters, with assistance from Los Angeles County Fire, took part in the suppression efforts and the fire was knocked out in 48 minutes.
“Without the aggressive and timely actions of the crews on scene, the fire could have continued to jump from solar array to solar array and potentially extend to the interior of the building, with devastating results for the business,” the Fire Department said at the time.
The cause of the 2024 fire is unclear. The department was unable to provide additional details when asked about it Tuesday, June 23.
The massive warehouse, which is used by Lineage to store about 85 million tons of frozen food, was built in 2018 and is owned by Chill Build Los Angeles 1 LLC.
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Chill Build obtained a permit for the 332,230-square-foot photovoltaic solar array about two years later, records showed.
Los Palos Street Operating LLC, a subsidiary of Altus Power, now owns the array, which can generate about 6 megawatts of power, or the equivalent of the power used by about 6,000 homes.
The developer and solar operator has similar systems across the country, with more than 1 gigawatt of solar power in its portfolio, according to corporate filings. About 12% of those systems are in California.
None of the power generated by the array is used by Lineage, however, according to Melanie Mendoza, a spokesperson for Lineage. Lineage leases the roof to Altus and has no other relationship with the company, she said.
The power generated by the array was instead sold to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power through its Feed-in Tariff program, which allows property owners to sell the output from renewable energy projects, instead of using it. The project, dubbed “Chill Solar,” was still listed as an in-service on the LADWP’s website, as of October 2025; however, LADWP spokesperson Kimberly Briggs said it was “not producing solar electricity purchased by LADWP since 2024.”
Rooftop solar can make it more difficult for firefighters to get a handle on large structure fires. When a similar fire occurred at a 300,000-square-foot Dietz & Watson cold storage warehouse in New Jersey in 2013, firefighters were ordered to stay off the roof because the electricity to the more than 7,000 solar panels on the roof could not be shut off.
Another cold storage facility operated by Lineage burned for months in Washington state in 2024.
On social media, L.A. City Controller Kenneth Meija said the firefighting efforts in Boyle Heights have cost taxpayers about $3 million so far.
“We need all companies involved to take accountability and help impacted residents immediately,” Meija wrote.
Los Angeles Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado has announced plans to introduce a series of motions to help residents and to hold those responsible for the fire accountable.
In a statement, Jurado said she is aware of the claim that the fire started on the roof while subcontractors were servicing the solar panels.
“Residents deserve an independent investigation into who was working there, what work was being done, who was responsible for that equipment, and whether any safety or oversight failures contributed to this disaster,” she said. “A company statement is not an investigation, and Boyle Heights deserves more than finger-pointing.”
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