Los Angeles Fire Department investigators can’t say for certain what ignited the June 17 fire that tore through Lineage’s Boyle Heights cold storage warehouse.
But the most probable cause was an “unknown electrical event” within Altus Power’s rooftop solar array, where technicians from engineering firm Pearce Services were making repairs the afternoon the blaze broke out, according to a report released Tuesday after LAFD completed its three-month investigation.
Fire investigators did not speak to any of the solar technicians present that day, according to the report. But they did contact a vice president at Pearce, which Altus had contracted to get the array running again after it briefly caught fire in 2024, as the Business Journal previously reported.
Investigators also spoke to four Lineage employees and a witness who lives across the street. They analyzed burn patterns, video footage and thousands of photos, but collected no physical evidence.
The investigators identified a section of the roof on the north side of the building as the “area of origin” and noted they “could not eliminate” the solar panels as the source.
Yet the report does not resolve whether the solar array was powered on at the time and ultimately classifies the cause of the fire as “undetermined.”
That raises more questions than answers about who, if anyone, is at fault for the blaze, which lasted for eight days, triggered local and state emergency orders, and left the neighborhood stewing for months in the stench of 85 million pounds rotting meat that needed to be removed from the charred remains of the enormous freezer at 1400 S. Los Palos St.
Now those questions will need to be resolved in court, where Lineage has accused Altus and Pearce of “negligent and reckless conduct” leading up to the fire, allegedly causing the cold storage real estate investment trust more than $1 billion in damages. All three companies have also been hit with multiple lawsuits, including a class action suit from Boyle Heights residents over harm caused by smoke and ash from the fire, plus putrid odors in the following weeks.
Mayor Karen Bass, for her part, remained focused on the future of the cold storage real estate sector in the community.
“My commitment is to the residents of Boyle Heights. They deserve transparency,” Bass said in a statement to the Business Journal. Bass added she does not want the freezer warehouse to be rebuilt and promised to continue demanding “answers and accountability.”
A fight over one line
The LAFD investigation report arrives 12 days after Lineage laid the legal blame for the fire squarely on its rooftop tenant Altus, a solar developer acquired last year by private equity firm TPG in a deal that valued it at $2.2 billion, along with its contractor Pearce, a subsidiary of brokerage giant CBRE.
The cold storage real estate investment trust accused Altus and Pearce of sparking the fire by re-energizing the array before completing safety tests Lineage had requested in writing, according to the complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. Representatives for Altus and Pearce have denied the claims.
Now, Lineage has seized on the fire department’s findings. A spokesperson for the firm drew particular attention to one section of the report labeled “ignition and fuel sources.”
Fire investigators searched the scene for accidental ignition sources like cigarettes or other items capable of producing an open flame but found no such evidence, the report states.
“After examination of the area, the following were unable to be ruled out: Solar panels and their connected components,” the lead investigator concluded.
A spokesperson for Lineage said in a statement Tuesday there’s only one way to interpret that: “The report lists only one ignition source the LAFD could not rule out as a cause: ‘Solar panels and their connected components.’ As we’ve known all along, this is a solar fire.”
Altus hit back that Lineage was misrepresenting the findings.
“Lineage unfortunately continues to misinform the public,” a spokesperson for Los Palos Street Operating, a local subsidiary of Altus, said. “Its statement today is in direct conflict with the Los Angeles Fire Department’s finding that the cause of the incident is ‘undetermined.”
‘Spot fires all around’
The report reconstructs the afternoon of June 17 largely through interviews with Lineage employees and a Pearce representative.
Four Pearce technicians checked in at the warehouse around 6:30 a.m., Cynthia Fernandez, Lineage’s facilities maintenance manager, told investigators. One left for another job site, leaving three on the roof, including Terez Edmonds, a Pearce technician.
Edmonds did not return the investigator’s calls, according to the report. His account came secondhand from Dorothy Rurak, vice president of health, safety and environment at Pearce, according to her LinkedIn. Neither Rurak nor Edmonds could be reached for comment for this story.
According to Rurak, Edmonds was working near the center of the roof when he saw smoke rising from the Union Pacific Avenue side of the building. Edmonds found fire coming from underneath a panel and saw that another panel had melted, Rurak told investigators. He tried to put out the flames with an extinguisher, “but then there were spot fires all around,” she said.
At 2:32 p.m., Edmonds called Erica Carbajal, Lineage’s quality assurance supervisor, and asked for more fire extinguishers, according to the report. Carbajal said Edmonds told her the crew had been on “fire watch” when the flames broke out.
Carbajal called Fernandez, who then called 911, according to the report. A neighbor across the street also called 911 at 2:35 p.m. after hearing someone on the street scream about smoke coming from the roof of the warehouse.
By 3 p.m. fire crews were battling a fierce blaze. Aerial footage showed heavy flames and thick black smoke pouring from the northern edge of the roof. Crews had nearly extinguished the flames by 3:08 p.m. But six minutes later, fire was sprouting from new areas of the roof and continued to burn, eventually consuming an area larger than three footballs field.
The fire went on to burn for eight days before crews knocked it down June 24. It damaged about half of the building and destroyed everything inside, according to the report. About 50% of the roof collapsed.
Fire investigators had limited access to the site while firefighting continued. They finally walked through the building for the first time June 29 and found solar panels consumed by fire, along with portable fire extinguishers scattered around the remains of the roof. Most had been fully or partly discharged, but one still had its safety pin in place, the report said.
Burning questions
There are some questions the report barely even touches.
In its complaint, Lineage alleges that Pearce, with Altus’ knowledge, energized the rooftop solar array on June 5 and again from June 10 through June 17, against Lineage’s written request that safety checks be completed first.
The only reference to that question in LAFD’s report comes from Paul Scott, a supervisor at Lineage responsible for verifying the solar array was safe to place into service. Scott told investigators the safety checks and walk-through were not scheduled until the week of June 22, so no tests had been performed and solar power “was not yet supposed to be going to the grid.”
Scott also told investigators that Lineage has no access to the array’s monitoring system, according to the report. He said Lineage had no way of knowing whether Pearce was following its protocol.
The report does not mention the mismatched “jumper” connections, loose bolts or more than 200 connector failures that Lineage cites in its complaint as evidence of faulty workmanship.
And investigators did not collect any physical evidence, according to the report.
LAFD’s arson battalion chief Thomas Raymond and lead investigator Samantha Prado signed and dated the report Aug. 25 – nearly a month before the department made it public and more than two weeks before Lineage filed suit.
On Sep. 16, a spokesperson for LAFD responded to the Business Journal’s public records request and stated, “the report is being finalized.”
