Officials were urging the public Saturday to limit outdoor exposure as much as possible near a cold storage facility in Boyle Heights, where the smell of smoke from a fire has reached most of the area, as city leaders considered declaring a local emergency.
No shelter-in-place or evacuation orders were issued as of late Saturday morning, but two shelter locations were opened to support anyone affected by the fire: Pecan Rec Center at 145 S. Pecan St., and City Terrace Park at 1126 N. Hazard Ave.
LAFD officials said Saturday that crews spent the night working to ensure the fire did not spread to nearby homes and other units in the complex, including an adjacent cold storage facility.
“The good news is, all of our air monitoring that has been done by our department, Hazmat, LA County Hazmat, as well as AQMD, has shown that there are no additional toxic chemicals or hazards within that smoke other than normal structure fire smoke,” LAFD Capt. Branden Silverman said. “That said, no smoke is good smoke. We know that people are being affected by this in our city as well as LA County’s jurisdiction, and we do want you to take precautions to avoid that smoke whenever possible.”
The blaze began shortly after 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at 1400 S. Los Palos St., and 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.
The intensity of the flames and heightened danger posed by the ammonia leak forced Los Angeles Fire Department 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.
At about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, fire officials reported the spread of the flames on the roof had been halted, and the shelter-in-place order was lifted.
In a later update, they said changing winds re-ignited hot spots inside the building and by Friday firefighters were again battling flames and conducting overhaul operations as smoke continued to rise from the damaged structure.
A shift in the wind caused the flare-up, which was reported shortly after 5 p.m. Friday. A smoke advisory issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District remained in effect.
“As this operation continues, I want to ask people, when they can, to please stay inside,” Mayor Karen Bass said Friday evening. “Keep your pets inside. And if you need to go outside for any reason, please wear a mask. 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.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis said the City Terrace Park shelter was providing masks, bottled water, non-perishable food and information from public health and air quality officials. Transportation assistance, including coordinated rides, will also be made available to help residents safely access the site, she said.
Information about the shelter, available services or transportation assistance is available at AlertLA.org.
Lineage Logistics, which operates the facility said it was working with fire officials and offered a preliminary assessment of the fire’s cause and risks.
“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,” company officials said in a late Friday statement. “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.”
Battalion Chief Nick Ferrari said Friday’s flare-up occurred because the flames are “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 fire, firefighters entered the building and removed every forklift that could be started, moving them to the parking lot to eliminate any risk.
“There are still some remaining forklifts inside the building,” Ferrari said. “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.”
LAFD Chief Jaime Moore called the fire “very unique” and said crews were using water-dropping helicopters for a structure fire — which are more commonly used for brush fires — but the size of the warehouse necessitated the aerial operation.
Moore said he has been with the department 31 years and this 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.
“These are unprecedented tactics that are being used,” Moore said. “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.”
County Supervisor Janice Hahn issued the following statement Saturday:
“We owe a great debt of gratitude to our Los Angeles city and county firefighters who are doing heroic work. This is a unique and extraordinarily challenging fire because of both the size of the warehouse and the chemicals used in cold storage. I support Mayor Karen Bass and Chair Hilda Solis’ decision to declare a local emergency while city, county and Red Cross partners are mobilizing to serve people impacted by this crisis and make sure that we can address any threats to public health.
“I urge residents, especially near the fire in Southeast LA, to register for emergency alerts through Alert LA County.”
No injuries had been reported as of Saturday morning.