Boyle Heights warehouse fire flares up Friday due to wind

Update: 8:08 a.m. Saturday, June 20, 2026

A large plume of smoke billowed out of a cold storage facility on Friday afternoon, two days after the fire first ignited at the Boyle Heights warehouse.

A shift in the wind caused the fire to flare up inside the warehouse, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department, which they said was expected.

“More smoke is currently visible in the area of this incident; however, there is no additional hazard,” LAFD said in a statement shortly after 5 p.m. Friday.

LAFD Chief Nick Ferrari later told reporters that the fire had burned through the roof, letting up gases and smoke. That cleared some of the interior of the building, allowing firefighters more visibility into conditions inside.

“This is going to be an extended event,” he said. “We have made great progress, just today alone.” 

Residents near the facility on South Los Palos Street reported a strong smell as they watched the smoke rise up, and vehicles driving in that direction turned around as it appeared that the fire flared up shortly before 5 p.m.

Gabriela Dueñas lives less than a mile from the warehouse and put on a mask while she sheltered indoors at her home.

“It smells horrible outside. More ashes are falling now. Seems like the fire is inside the structure now,” Dueñas said just before 5 p.m. on Friday.

Firefighters were at the scene dousing the building. The smoke shifted from black to white before turning black again within an hour. LAFD spokesperson Lyndsey Lantz said that the white smoke was a sign that firefighters were getting water on the flames, and brown smoke likely meant that materials were burning.

“We want to assure people that we expected that change due to the wind,” Lantz said. “Our crews were prepared for that.”

Dueñas said it was frustrating to learn that firefighters anticipated those changes, saying residents were not adequately informed ahead of time.

“Why isn’t LAFD using their social media platforms to provide updates to residents?” she asked. “Instead, we begin to panic when we see the sun covered with a black cloud of smoke.”

LAFD does not expect a shelter-in-place will be put into effect, Lantz said.

A previous shelter-in-place order was triggered as fire reached an ammonia line. Since then, Ferrari said, the building operator was able to pull ammonia out of the facility’s tanks and transport the chemical off-site. The operator also filled a generator, allowing the building’s interior sprinkler system to keep running, he said.

Ferrari stressed the unusual nature of the fire, and the aggressive tactics that firefighters were using. Helicopter water drops — almost unheard of for a structure fire — continued on Friday. Firefighters were also able to retrieve a number of forklifts with lithium-ion batteries from inside the building, lessening the hazard that the batteries posed. Some remained inside, Ferrari added, but they were in a portion of the building uninvolved in the fire.

The fire broke out Wednesday, prompting an hours-long shelter-in-place order due to hazardous materials, including ammonia.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District on Friday extended a particle pollution advisory to 12:30 p.m. Saturday, and a smoke advisory remains in effect in a zone near the fire.

Early monitoring showed particles were generally present at background levels, AQMD said, but for several seconds at a time, they found increased levels of bromine and chlorine.

“Bromine and chlorine are typically found at trace levels during structural fires and the levels seen were below short-term health-based exposure thresholds,” AQMD said. “Concentrations below this level are not expected to cause adverse health effects. No significant levels of air toxic metals were seen.”

Mayor Karen Bass spoke outside the building Friday evening, praising firefighters’ efforts. She added that people in the area could expect to continue to see smoke, and she urged people and their pets to stay inside as much as possible. She asked people to wear masks when they needed to go outside.

“We know that this is concerning. This is inconvenient, but we are doing everything we can to end this as soon as possible,” she said. “And we want everyone to be safe in the meantime.”

The city’s Department of Recreation and Parks opened the Pecan Recreation Center, 145 S. Pecan St., as a smoke relief center on Friday, and it will stay open overnight and as long as it is needed. A second smoke relief center opened Saturday at City Terrace Park, 1126 N. Hazard Ave., through the office of LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis. Community groups, including Proyecto Pastoral, Running Mamis and Centro CSO, went door to door distributing masks, Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said.

Jurado thanked the community for stepping up, allowing fire officials to focus their efforts on extinguishing the fire. She added the Eastside deserved great fire service just as much as Westside neighborhoods.

“This has been a resilient community that has faced history of environmental pollution, and with no recourse,” she said. “This city needed to show decisive action.”

Smoke relief centers: