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What exactly caused the Lineage warehouse fire? The Los Angeles Fire Department said it doesn’t know.
According to an investigative report obtained Tuesday by LA Public Press, department investigators said the cause of the Lineage cold storage warehouse was “undetermined,” but added that the probable cause was an “unknown electrical event” occurring on the warehouse’s roof.
In an emailed press release, LAFD said the fire originated “at or adjacent to a section of solar panels” on the roof. Because “the specific cause of that electrical event could not be conclusively established,” the department officially declared it as “undetermined.”
In a statement on Tuesday to LA Public Press, a Lineage spokesperson said the report “validates what we have known all along: This was a solar fire.” Lineage declined to name a spokesperson for the statement.
The Lineage fire ignited on the afternoon of June 17 and burned for 11 days. Thousands of Boyle Heights and East LA residents had to shelter in place during the fire, with many reporting difficulty breathing and other health issues from both the fire smoke and the putrid effects of 85 million pounds of rotting food that Lineage took two months to remove.
Lineage, who operates the warehouse, has long claimed that the fire was not started by their operations. They blamed Altus Power, the owner of the solar panel array on top of the building. Lineage Logistics said they believe the fire started when Altus Power was conducting tests.
LAFD Fire Chief Jaime Moore claimed that no ammonia, a toxic fire chemical commonly used in refrigeration, was detected during the fire. But that statement was met with strong skepticism by local residents and environmental activists — while independent testing found elevated levels of ammonia around the site of the fire.
Fire investigators, though, wrote in the newly obtained report that the department’s hazmat team did not find any ammonia.
The report also included witness interviews. Three people who spoke to the fire department reported that they had spoken to an employee on site with Pearce Renewables, a company subcontracted to operate the warehouse’s rooftop solar panels. The employee was, according to witnesses, on the warehouse roof when the fire broke out.
According to the report, an electrical engineer with Lineage testified that Pearce Renewables had been making repairs to the solar panels due to a 2024 fire. The engineer, who said he was in charge of verifying that the panels were safe to use, said he did not have a chance to meet Pearce’s lead engineer to determine if they were following protocol for the safe installation of the solar panels.
On Sept. 10, Lineage sued Altus Power, which owns the panels, alleging that the company’s negligence caused the fire.
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