LA City Council to weigh Boyle Heights warehouse fire actions including corporate penalties, recovery funds
More than a month after a Lineage cold storage warehouse erupted into flames in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado introduced a series of motions calling for stronger financial penalties against corporations that commit serious violations and more recovery funds.
On Tuesday, Jurado introduced the Boyle Heights Fire Recovery and Environmental Justice Package, a seven-motion package, to the City Council. Her package is organized around three priorities: immediate relief and cleanup, accountability and transparency and long-term oversight and community power.
"Boyle Heights has already waited too long," Jurado said. "This package makes clear that relief cannot be delayed, accountability cannot be optional, and recovery cannot happen without the people who lived through this disaster."
The motions call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to deploy additional resources to accelerate cleanup, direct the City Attorney to assess potential civil claims against Lineage and any other responsible parties and call for the public release of LA Sanitation's final findings on impacts.
The fire erupted on June 17 at a Lineage-operated cold-storage warehouse on the 1400 block of Los Palos Street. The blaze burned for more than a week before crews were able to fully extinguish it.
Jurado, who represents Boyle Heights, says families have had to deal with swarms of flies, rodents and strong odors from the roughly 85 million pounds of rotten food left behind after the fire.
The motions also call for the creation of the Mitigation Response Fund of up to $10 million to be used for odor and pest control, site remediation and financial assistance for affected residents and small businesses. The motion package directs LA Sanitation and the Community Investment Department to develop budgets and work plans for deploying the funds and explore assistance from LADWP bills for households in the affected area.
"Boyle Heights families have spent weeks paying the price for a disaster they did not cause," Jurado said. "Recovery cannot mean removing debris and moving on. This package turns those demands into city action."
Lineage Logistics says they've been working around the clock and have already removed approximately 80% of the bulk food waste. They expect to complete that process by next week and they say they've done what they can to reduce odors and control pests during the cleanup. The company says it has distributed air filters, grocery vouchers and cash assistance cards.
But some Boyle Heights residents claim they have yet to see any door-to-door outreach by the company.
Jurado and residents want companies like Lineage to be held accountable for their actions and their impacts on communities around them.
One of the motions in the package directs the LA Department of Building and Safety to recommend stronger financial penalties, between $25,000 and $1 million, to corporations for serious violations that impose widespread harm on communities.
The seven motions:
- Relief now: Dedicated recovery funding
- Faster cleanup: Bring in state resources
- No routine rebuild: Protect Boyle Heights
- Real accountability: Stronger penalties for corporate negligence
- Legal options: Follow the evidence and the money
- Public answers: Release the water-quality results
- Community power: Create a permanent environmental justice voice
"Introducing motions is an important step but not the last. Boyle Heights will not be asked to trust vague promises.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is also meeting to consider motions to provide more financial assistance to small businesses affected by the Lineage warehouse fire and to increase penalties for public health violations.
