Latest Update: Tuesday, June 23, 2026, 11:30 a.m.
Nearly a week after it began, the Boyle Heights warehouse fire appears to be nearing its end, but the smoke is not over just yet.
At a Monday news conference, Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore said fire activity inside the cold-storage building had decreased through the day and that he expects crews to fully extinguish the blaze later this week and return the site to its operator in the coming days.
Firefighters have been pouring roughly 12,000 gallons of water per minute into the structure, aided by out-of-state water cannons, helicopter drops and a long-arm excavator peeling back the building’s siding. The smoke has lightened in color — a sign that ordinary contents rather than the building itself are now burning — though officials caution it may briefly thicken as crews open walls to reach hidden pockets of fire.
For South Pasadena/Pasadena Metro area, the news is mixed but improving
Air quality has gotten better, but the South Coast AQMD’s particle pollution advisory remained in effect Tuesday morning, set to run through 12:30 p.m. Wednesday and possibly longer. All of last week’s shelter-in-place orders, which never reached South Pasadena, have expired, and the EPA and AQMD continue to report nothing in the air beyond what is typical after a structure fire.
A new dispute over what sparked the fire surfaced this week
Lineage, the company that operates the warehouse, said Monday it believes the fire began while contractors for Altus Power — the owner of the rooftop solar array — were conducting tests, stressing that the fire “was not caused by our operations or our team” and that Lineage is the building’s tenant, not its owner.
In a statement Tuesday, Altus Power said the cause “has yet to be determined” and that it is cooperating fully with investigators. Fire officials have not announced an official cause, saying only that the fire started on the rooftop. The state and local emergencies declared Saturday remain in effect as attention turns to cleanup, including the removal of an estimated 85 million pounds of spoiled food, with the city’s firefighting costs already estimated at about $3 million.
Update: Monday, June 22, 2026, 4:30 a.m.
Los Angeles County health officials extended the region’s particle pollution advisory again on Sunday, pushing it to 12:30 p.m. Monday as smoke from the Boyle Heights warehouse fire continued to affect air quality. Since Friday night, fine-particle pollution has reached levels rated “Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups” to “Very Unhealthy” across central Los Angeles County, the San Gabriel Valley and the eastern San Fernando Valley — the zone that includes South Pasadena, San Marino, Pasadena and Highland Park. Shifting winds moved the smoke in new directions through the day, and Los Angeles County closed parks, pools and children’s activities as a precaution. This remains an advisory, not a shelter-in-place order; the guidance is still to stay indoors with windows and doors closed when smoke is present, run an air purifier, avoid swamp coolers and whole-house fans, and wear an N95 or P100 mask if you must be outside in heavy smoke.
There was meaningful progress on the fire itself. At a Sunday news conference, Los Angeles Fire Chief Jaime Moore said crews had made incredible headway, removing sections of the warehouse’s exterior walls to reach the fire burning deep inside and apply large volumes of water. The department said the blaze along the building’s exterior has been largely knocked down, and Moore said he expects the acrid smoke that has hung over the region to begin to subside. A full knockdown is in sight, but the job is not done: interior storage racks are still holding up parts of the collapsed roof, leaving unstable conditions that crews are working through carefully, with the remaining fire concentrated in the building’s interior.
The emergency declarations issued Saturday by Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom remain in effect, and the response has shifted from fighting flames to managing the aftermath — structural safety, ongoing air monitoring, and the eventual removal of an estimated 85 million pounds of spoiled food from the cold-storage facility, a cleanup officials expect to be substantial. No injuries have been reported. Residents can check real-time conditions for their own neighborhood at aqmd.gov/AQImap or AirNow.gov. This report will be updated as conditions change.
Huge Warehouse In Boyle Heights Lingers into Weekend:
A Cold-Storage Blaze That Ignited Wednesday Is Still Smoldering in East Los Angeles, and Shifting Winds Have Pushed Haze and Toxic Smoke Across into the South Pasadena/Pasadena areas.
The haze and chemical odor hanging over South Pasadena, San Marino, Highland Park and the wider Pasadena area this weekend is not coming from anything local. It is drifting in from a large warehouse fire several miles to the southwest, in the Boyle Heights section of East Los Angeles, where a refrigerated cold-storage building has been burning and smoldering since Wednesday afternoon.
As of midday Saturday, there is no shelter-in-place order and no evacuation for South Pasadena or any of the foothill communities. Those orders applied only to the immediate neighborhoods around the fire and were lifted Friday morning. What does reach our area is smoke, and with it a South Coast Air Quality Management District advisory urging residents to limit time outdoors, especially anyone sensitive to poor air.
State of Emergency Declared in the city of Los Angeles: Click Here for That Report
What Is Burning
The fire is at a Lineage Logistics cold-storage and blast-freezing warehouse in the 1400 block of South Los Palos Street, a sprawling refrigerated facility of roughly 490,000 to 500,000 square feet used to store frozen food. The Los Angeles Fire Department says it broke out around 2:35 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, beginning on the roof in an array of solar panels before working its way into the structure.
Crews knocked the flames down Wednesday evening with the help of water-dropping helicopters, an unusual tactic in a dense urban setting. But the blaze reignited Thursday when firefighters discovered fire still burning inside a freezer section, and it has produced repeated flare-ups since. The most recent came late Friday afternoon, when a shift in wind sent a fresh plume of black and white smoke into the sky. LAFD said that flare-up was anticipated, that crews on scene caused no additional hazard, and that firefighters would continue pouring large volumes of water into the building for an extended period. The department has described it as a complex, one-of-a-kind incident.
The fire has been difficult to fully extinguish because of how the building is constructed and what it contains. Dense foam insulation has fed the smoke, an ammonia line was breached early on, and crews have contended with solar panels that complicate roof access. No injuries have been reported.
South Pasadena Is Being Smoked-Out
The wind shifted towards town. Plumes from the smoldering warehouse have drifted over downtown Los Angeles and East Los Angeles and pushed into portions of the San Gabriel Valley. In its advisories, the AQMD specifically named lesser smoke impacts for a wider area including Alhambra and Arcadia, the communities that flank South Pasadena and San Marino, and Los Angeles County Public Health described the affected zone as neighborhoods east of downtown and parts of the San Gabriel Valley. Smoke from a smoldering fire tends to stay low rather than rise and disperse, which is why the odor and haze have been noticeable at ground level even this far from the source.
Is It Dangerous? What the Monitoring Shows
The primary concern for our area is fine particulate matter, the microscopic soot in wildfire and structure-fire smoke that can irritate the lungs and is most hazardous to sensitive groups. The AQMD has been running mobile air monitoring near the fire and says particulate levels there have generally been near normal background readings, with brief, seconds-long spikes inside the plume. During those spikes, monitors picked up slightly elevated bromine and chlorine, which the district says are typical in trace amounts during structure fires and remained below short-term health thresholds. No significant levels of toxic metals were detected. LAFD has said nothing more hazardous than what is found in ordinary fire smoke has turned up in its monitoring.
Recent readings in the South Pasadena area have hovered in the Moderate range on the federal Air Quality Index, with PM2.5 the main pollutant, but those numbers can rise and fall quickly as the wind moves plumes around. Residents are encouraged to check real-time conditions for their exact location.
How Long the Advisory Lasts
The South Coast AQMD first issued a particle pollution advisory Wednesday evening and has extended it repeatedly as the fire smolders. The latest extension runs through roughly midday Saturday, but with active flare-ups continuing and crews expecting to remain on scene for an extended period, a further extension is likely. Readers should treat the advisory as ongoing and check the AQMD for the current status rather than assume it has expired.
What Officials Recommend
The guidance from the AQMD and county health officials is straightforward: if you see or smell smoke, stay indoors with windows and doors closed, run air conditioning on recirculate or use an air purifier, and avoid whole-house fans or swamp coolers that pull in outside air. Limit strenuous outdoor activity, and keep an eye on children, older adults, pregnant residents and anyone with asthma or heart or lung conditions. Avoid adding indoor pollution from candles, incense, grilling or gas-powered equipment. Anyone who needs to be outside for an extended time should consider a well-fitting N95 or KN95 mask. Pets should be brought inside as well. Seek medical attention if symptoms such as persistent coughing, shortness of breath or chest tightness develop.
For Saturday plans, the Moderate air quality and active advisory argue for caution rather than blanket cancellation. Summer camps, youth sports and other outdoor programs may shorten, move indoors or adjust depending on conditions, and organizers are following county guidance. Families with sensitive members should weigh whether to limit outdoor time, particularly during any visible smoke.
State of Emergency and Cleanup
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, speaking at a Friday evening news conference, said the fire is not at risk of spreading and that her central concern is the public’s health, pointing to the smoke from the chemicals used to keep the facility’s food frozen. She urged residents in affected areas to stay inside, keep pets in and wear masks if they go out, and said the city, with the Red Cross and other partners, is distributing masks and air filters. Bass said she expected to speak with Gov. Gavin Newsom about a joint emergency declaration to free up resources for removing and safely disposing of hazardous materials and to head off a larger environmental problem. Two relief centers have been opened for residents nearest the fire, at the Pecan Recreation Center at 145 S. Pecan St. and at City Terrace Park at 1126 N. Hazard Ave., both in East Los Angeles.
A Familiar Address
This is not the first fire at the Lineage facility. LAFD crews responded to a solar-panel fire there in August 2024 and contained it within an hour. The company has also drawn prior federal scrutiny over ammonia-handling compliance. Lineage has said the health and safety of its employees, partners and surrounding communities is its top priority and that it is working with local agencies as the situation evolves. The cause of this week’s fire remains under investigation, though investigators believe it may have started in the rooftop solar panels.
Where to Get Real-Time Updates
Because conditions can change hour to hour with the wind, residents are urged to monitor live air quality through the South Coast AQMD and the federal AirNow service, and to follow LAFD updates for the status of the firefight. The South Pasadenan will update this story as the situation develops.
