Los Angeles Warehouse Fire Led to Air-Quality Testing and Elevated Emergency Visits

A fire broke out on June 17, 2026, at a 500,000-square-foot cold-storage warehouse owned by Lineage in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. The blaze burned for one week and prompted a state of emergency declaration. Lineage hired Arkansas-based Onterris to conduct air-quality testing after the fire.

Onterris began on-site work on June 21 after being contacted on June 20 by Altus Power, the warehouse rooftop solar-panel owner. The firm began roaming community monitoring and testing for heavy metals on June 23 and reported good air quality with low levels of hazardous gases.

Emergency-room visits from patients living within 10 miles of the warehouse increased to three times the normal rate from June 17 through June 25, according to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

A federal monitoring station at Eastman Avenue Elementary School recorded 755 micrograms per cubic meter of fine particles for more than one hour on June 19. During the January 2025 Los Angeles fires, a Caltech monitor in Pasadena recorded approximately 650 micrograms per cubic meter of fine particles.

Onterris was formerly named Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health and rebranded in April 2026 after 29 years of operation.

CBS News reported that the company had conducted air testing after several prior industrial incidents, including the 2023 Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a 2005 Murphy Oil spill in Louisiana, the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill, a 2006 Knauf drywall case that led to a $1.1 billion settlement, and a 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority coal-ash spill where an EPA audit found quality-assurance shortfalls.