Fire reignited Friday at a cold-storage facility in Boyle Heights, sending a mixture of black and white smoke billowing from the building as firefighters battled flames that flared up inside a freezer container, with no immediate threat to the public.
The blaze began shortly after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday in the 1400 block of South Los Palos Street and had been declared contained that evening. However, according to fire officials, changing winds reignited hot spots inside the building.
Firefighters on Friday were again battling the blaze and conducting overhaul operations as smoke continued to rise from the damaged structure.
According to Battalion Chief Nick Ferrari, Friday’s flare-up occurred because the fire was “so deep-seated in this building, we cannot get water to the seat of the fire.”
He added that there were about 56 forklifts equipped with lithium batteries inside the facility, and as crews battled the blaze, firefighters entered the building and removed every forklift that could be started, moving them to the parking lot to eliminate the risk of fire impingement.
”There are still some remaining forklifts inside the building. They are in an uninvolved portion of the building, and we are making a stand there to prevent the fire from entering that building so that there’s not a lithium ion battery hazard. This is going to be an extended event,” he said.
As of 6:55 p.m., the fire department noted that changing weather conditions and ongoing suppression efforts would increase smoke visibility in the area, but there was no immediate threat to the public.
City officials were setting up a smoke relief center for residents in need of a place to take shelter indoors at the Pecan Recreation Center, Mayor Karen Bass said during a news conference Friday evening.
”As this operation continues I want to ask people, when they can, to please stay inside,” Bass said. ”Keep your pets inside. And if you need to go outside for any reason, please wear a mask. I want to end by speaking directly to the families and the businesses in the area. We know this is concerning. This is inconvenient. But we are doing everything we can to end this as soon as possible, and we want everybody to be safe in the meantime.”
Residents were also advised to close their windows and doors and turn off window-mounted air conditioning and heating units.
”These are unprecedented tactics that are being used. And so when people are asking, what is our fire department doing? To be very aggressive and improve the situations. This is an example of this. Chief Moore will be with us Saturday, and he’ll go into about how these are unprecedented tactics that have been used, which is why we hear the helicopters back and fort,” Bass said.
A Shelter in place order issued Wednesday was originally expected to remain in effect for only a few hours. But it was re-issued Thursday, with crews encountering pockets of fire still burning in a freezer container inside the structure.
“Firefighters continue to attack the fire on the roof and in the building from the exterior,” department officials said. ”We appreciate your patience and encourage residents to stay informed through official updates.”
Shortly after 2:30 p.m. Thursday, the Los Angeles Fire Department announced it was beginning to ventilate the building, releasing smoke from inside the building. As a result, the LAFD again reissued a shelter-in-place order affecting residents and businesses in an area stretching south of the 101 Freeway to roughly Washington Boulevard, east of Lorena Street and west of Indiana Street.
The Mayor commended firefighters for being ”bold,” ”aggressive,” and for ”using tactics that haven’t been used before to respond to this emergency.” They made steady progress, with the shelter-in-place order lifted at about 11:30 a.m. As of 8 p.m., crews were in the management phase, watching for new hotspots or flareups.
“Although smoke in the area has decreased, individuals with sensitivity to smoke should continue to monitor (Air Quality Management District) air quality alerts and avoid unnecessary exposure to outdoor air,” the LAFD advised in a statement.
A Particle Pollution Advisory issued by the AQMD at 5 p.m. Wednesday was initially scheduled to expire at 10 a.m. Thursday, but was first extended through Friday and later extended again through 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
The fire on Wednesday rapidly spread across solar panels on the roof of the 491,000-square-foot warehouse, while an ammonia leak developed inside the building and thick smoke billowed into the air, prompting shelter-in-place orders for nearby residents and businesses on Wednesday.
The intensity of the flames and heightened danger posed by the ammonia leak forced LAFD crews to pull away from the structure and assume a defensive posture, pouring water on the building from the exterior.
As the fire spread, LAFD hose lines were unable to reach parts of the blaze, so at least three water-dropping helicopters were brought in to help halt the flames, dumping thousands of gallons of water onto the building.
LAFD Chief Jaime Moore called it a “very unique” situation for crews to use water-dropping helicopters for a structure fire, but the size of the warehouse necessitated the aerial operation.
Moore said he has been with the LAFD for 31 years, and it was only the second time he could recall aerial water drops being used to battle a structure fire. The previous incident occurred about six years ago in Echo Park.
About 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, fire officials reported that the spread of the flames on the roof had been halted, and the original shelter-in-place order was lifted Wednesday night.
No injuries were reported. It was unclear what sparked the blaze.
The solar panels on the same building also caught fire in August 2024, but LAFD crews were able to douse that blaze in less than an hour with no injuries.
According to the Lineage website, the facility offers cold storage, customs brokerage, drayage and blast freezing. The facility “is built to handle high-volume inventory and streamline … global cold chain from production floor to international delivery.”