Residents of Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, are enduring a pervasive, putrid smell of rotting meat, vegetables, and frozen products after a massive warehouse fire destroyed half of the facility's 85 million pounds of frozen food. The fire, which burned for a week at the Lineage cold storage warehouse, was extinguished on Wednesday, but approximately 40 million pounds of spoiled food remains, creating an unbearable odor that residents compare to a dead body.
Health Concerns and Unbearable Smell
Kelvin Vasquez, who lives one block from the 500,000 sq ft insulated warehouse, reported suffering from a sore throat, headache, persistent dizziness, and nausea since the fire began on 17 June. However, his primary worry now is the smell of the tens of millions of pounds of unrefrigerated, smoke-shrouded food. "It's pretty much something like a dead body," Vasquez said. "Like a dead animal."
Cleanup Operations Underway
With the fire extinguished, cleanup operations have become the responsibility of the property owner and Lineage Logistics, the cold-storage company leasing the space. Lineage stated on Friday that it had hired a cleanup firm to handle operations. However, neither Lineage nor its cleanup firm responded to inquiries about the cleanup timeline. The Los Angeles health services officials told the Guardian that the city was unaware of any plans for disposal of the spoiled food.
Polluted Runoff
The millions of gallons of water used to fight the fire created a steady stream polluted with debris, burnt insulation foam, and bags of once-frozen food items. Workers with Signal, a cleanup contractor, are cleaning the waste and debris pouring into the streets.
Blame for the Fire
Two companies lease space at the warehouse: Lineage and Altus Power, a clean energy company operating over 300,000 sq ft of solar panels on the rooftop. Altus Power previously sold electricity from the solar panels to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) through a feed-in-tariff program, but the city stopped purchasing energy from the property in 2024, according to a LADWP spokesperson. Lineage has blamed Altus Power for the fire, stating it believed the fire began while workers conducted tests on the rooftop solar array. Altus Power said in a statement that the cause "has yet to be determined."
Previous Incidents
This is not the first fire at the Boyle Heights warehouse or involving Lineage or Altus Power. Two years ago, solar panels at the same warehouse caught fire, but firefighters quickly extinguished the flames. A cause was never determined. Vasquez, who has lived next to the warehouse for two decades, said he felt the property was a "ticking bomb" after that 2024 fire. Earlier that same year, a Lineage warehouse in Finley, Washington, burned for 60 days, causing significant health issues for local residents. Lineage is still engaged in civil lawsuits related to that fire.
Mayor's Response
In a Thursday press conference, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass vowed to "hold those responsible fully accountable" and plans to sign an executive order mobilizing more resources to help clean up the frozen food.
