Firefighters move closer to extinguishing Boyle Heights warehouse fire

Fire crews were hoping to contain the long-burning Lineage cold-storage warehouse fire in Boyle Heights by midnight on Wednesday, June 24, after eliminating flames on the roof overnight, allowing firefighters to focus on smoldering hot spots inside the damaged structure, officials said.

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Los Angeles Fire Department officials said water-dropping helicopters were no longer needed because fire on the roof of the roughly 491,000-square-foot warehouse had been extinguished.

Crews were concentrating on remaining pockets of fire inside the building while continuing to battle the blaze from the exterior.

Firefighters remain unable to enter the structure because of safety concerns, including unstable storage racks, a compromised roof and millions of pounds of food stored inside the warehouse. Instead, crews are using high-capacity water streams, drones and heavy equipment to locate and extinguish hot spots.

On Monday, fire officials said they hoped to have the week-old fire extinguished by week’s end. The fire department’s new goal, however, was to have the fire completely extinguished by Wednesday, June 24 at midnight, a spokesman said.

“The goal from our fire chief himself, he would like us to have it knocked down by tonight at midnight,” Milo Cope, an LAFD’s public information officer captain, told reporters at the scene of the fire on Wednesday. “However, safety is our number one priority.”

The LAFD also brought in water turrets from Texas, which are usually used to combat fires on oil derricks, to help contain the Boyle Heights fire, according to Cope. It took a two-day trip, but the Texan turrets have better capabilities to spray more water from further distances than the LAFD’s existing appliances, Cope said.

“We’re using them more for their penetration, their distance,” Cope said. “They’re putting water in about 300 feet in, so it’s helping us out tremendously. They’re doing a lot of great work out here and we’re happy to have them help us out.”

The warehouse erupted in flames about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, and while crews initially believed they had contained the blaze — in part through the rare use of water-dropping helicopters on a structure fire — pockets of fire continued to burn inside the structure.

“We used helicopters on day one originally to knock down the fire that was on the solar panels. We took care of that; Day Two, we brought them in to try and damage that roof so much that we could get water in from the outside through that roof on to the product,” Cope said. “It didn’t work well — we were even dropping 3,000 gallons at a time with a helicopter to try to blow that roof out and we weren’t very successful with it.”

It did, though, put a few small holes in the roof that LAFD personnel are now using to try and contain the remaining blaze inside the building.

“Now these helicopters are finding heat directly below one of those holes,” Cope said, “so we’re using them to drop about 480 gallons of water at a time through that hole and hopefully hit the fire itself down there.”

The warehouse was storing millions of pounds of food, which has presented a unique issue for the LAFD, according to Cope.

“At this point, those racks stacked about 50 to 60 feet high, a lot of that food has fallen off and onto the ground,” Cope said. “It’s covered a lot of that original fire, so it’s hard for us to get enough water to saturate all that product and get down to the scene of the fire.”

But still, the goal to knock down the remaining fire by Wednesday at midnight remains in effect.

Lineage Logistics, the tenant-operator, but not owner of the burning building, issued  issued a statement Monday evening saying the company was “grateful and encouraged by the news from the Los Angeles Fire Department that, while things can always change, they are looking to extinguish the fire in days and turn over the building to the owner and our company for clean up as early as Friday.”

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“The bravery and expertise we have seen from the firefighters of the LAFD is nothing less than extraordinary. As we remain committed to doing everything we can to help firefighters and the community, we want to be clear that this fire was not caused by our operations or our team.”

The company, in its statement, also said it believes that fire was started on the roof when the owner of the solar array, Altus Power, was conducting tests.

“The solar array does not power the building directly but provides power into the city power grid,” Lineage said. “As we step up for the community, we are also urging Altus to join us getting the Boyle Heights community the support they desperately need.”

Altus, meanwhile, issued a statement insisting that the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

“Our first concern is for the residents of Boyle Heights, everyone affected by this fire, and for the firefighters working to contain it,” according to the company. “The cause of the fire where our rooftop solar array is located at the Los Palos Street facility has yet to be determined. We are cooperating fully with the authorities as they investigate.”

As the fire has continued burning, air quality concerns have persisted for large swaths of Los Angeles, but the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and South Coast Air Quality Management District have not detected anything beyond normal combustible material typical after a fire, authorities said.

A special Particle Pollution Advisory issued by the AQMD was extended until at least 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

County health officials on Monday also urged residents impacted by the smoke to take precautions, such as staying indoors, keeping windows and doors closed, limiting activities outdoors and wearing a high-quality face mask while outside.

The LAFD, in a Tuesday, June 23 update, said testing for pollutants in the air including ammonia, hydrogen fluoride, and toxic metals was done near the fire and in the adjacent neighborhoods, and found that no significant levels of any of those pollutants were present.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors, on Tuesday, June 23, ratified a local emergency and streamlined county resources for residents in unincorporated East Los Angeles and nearby cities affected by breathing thick smoke from the warehouse fire in Boyle Heights burning for a seventh day, as reports of possible environmental damage surfaced along the area’s waterways.

During the supervisors’ Tuesday meeting, Board Chair Hilda Solis said she’d heard runoff from firefighting efforts had reached the Los Angeles River, killing fish downstream. Those concerns are still being investigated. L.A. County Public Works took samples from the L.A. River, and said Tuesday they wouldn’t get the result for at least a couple of days.

Mayor Karen Bass and Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, who represents the 14th Council District, which includes Boyle Heights, said Sunday officials were handing out hundreds of air purifiers and masks. County Supervisor Hilda Solis said the county was also working to distribute purifiers and masks. Additional resources were being put in place at the warehouse after Gov. Gavin Newsom, Bass and Solis each issued emergency declarations to support the ongoing fire fight.

Lineage has also provided air purifiers and masks to Boyle Heights residents, according to the company, and plan to continuing doing so for “as long as they are needed,” the company said. Lineage also brough in food trucks to provide meals for residents and firefighters.

Two shelter locations were opened to support anyone affected by the fire: a city facility at the Pecan Recreation Center and a county location at City Terrace Park. The Weingart East Los Angeles YMCA also opened an emergency shelter at its facility where it is also distributing masks.

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SCNG photographer David Crane contributed to this report.