Boyle Heights warehouse fire is nearly out, fire officials say

Joseph Serna and Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times on Jun 24, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

LOS ANGELES — A fire that has burned at a Boyle Heights warehouse for more than a week is nearly out, after crews managed to extinguish flames on the roof overnight, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said Wednesday.

Water-dropping helicopters are no longer needed to knock down flames on the roof of the nearly 500,000-square-foot cold storage facility operated by Lineage, leaving crews to focus their attention on the smoldering fire inside, LAFD Capt. Jacob Raabe said Wednesday morning.

“Those air tactics are no longer needed because all the fire has been put out on the roof,” Raabe said outside the facility.

The goal on Wednesday, Raabe said, is to extinguish what’s left burning inside the building. But firefighters will have to do that without going inside, he said.

The roof, Raabe said, is resting on the 600-foot-long, 50-foot-tall racks that hold the 85 million pounds of food that are burning and spoiling inside, posing a danger to anyone who’d go in.

So instead, firefighters are blasting a constant stream of water into the belly of the warehouse, hoping to drown out the flames.

“We still cannot send firefighters into this building and to be quite honest, we’re probably never going to send anyone into this building because there’s no life hazard right now,” Raabe said. “Were going to put out this fire from the exterior and reevaluate as conditions change. But this tactic is working and it’s putting out the fire.”

Crews will fly drones into the building to look for hot spots and then redirect their water cannons accordingly, Raabe said.

Though this isn’t the first fire that Lineage has experienced at one of its cold storage facilities — which are essentially warehouse-sized ice chests walled with thick insulation — it is highlighting a strategy for fighting these types of fires, Raabe said.

The agency partnered with a company in Texas to use their water cannons — which are typically used on burning oil rigs — to bring them to Southern California.

Crews also “peeled” back the building’s walls to expose more of the interior and give better access to firefighters, Raabe said.

“We’re able to incorporate this public-private partnership,” Raabe said. “That is how we have taken a fire that in other jurisdictions has taken over 60 days to put out, we’re on day eight now and we’re close to final extinguishment.”

In 2024, a fire at a Lineage cold-storage warehouse in Finley, Washington, took eight weeks to extinguish. Some residents have filed a lawsuit alleging the company has a history of hazardous chemical releases and regulatory violations that should have compelled it to adopt stronger safety protocols at the site. Lineage said that health and safety is its top priority and that it vigorously disputes the lawsuit’s characterization of its safety record.

Meanwhile, the South Coast Air Quality Management District extended a particle pollution advisory through 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, saying that smoke from the fire continued to affect air quality. The impacts vary greatly across space and time and depend on the fire activity, the agency said.

Regulator monitors and sensors have measured improved pollution levels since noon Monday, with the air quality index in the areas immediately surrounding the fire decreasing from very unhealthy to moderate as of 11 a.m. Tuesday, the agency said. Still, it said, air quality monitors don’t account for large ash particles and debris, and people who see or smell smoke or ash should take precautions to protect their health.