The massive warehouse ablaze in Boyle Heights is part of the world’s largest company specializing in the cold storage and transportation of food.
Lineage, formerly known as Lineage Logistics, employs 23,000 and has 22 facilities in Southern California — 500 in 19 countries, including Canada and the Netherlands, according to the company website. It bills itself as the world’s largest temperature-controlled food supply-chain company of its kind.
A reignited fire at the warehouse at 1400 S. Los Palos Street has sparked a local state of emergency, but fire officials have downplayed the dangers of spreading any chemical toxins, other than those normally contained in smoke.
Online records show that the Cal/OSHA opened an investigation into the site on the same day that the fire initially ignited, June 17. The agency database also shows that OSHA investigated the warehouse operations in 2023, but no additional information was available.
According to the CalEPA online database, the warehouse’s sister facility in Vernon, on Bandini Boulevard, was fined $3,420 in December for a violation in its risk management plan, dealing with the prevention of “accidental release.” No further information was available Saturday.
No violations for Lineage’s Los Angeles operations could be found at the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
Southern California News Group reached out Saturday to the company, but did not receive a comment by deadline.
The firm was the brainchild in 2008 of Adam Forste and Kevin Marchetti, who met at Morgan Stanley. They saw that cold storage was a “vital but overlooked” industry and strategized to position their services near ports, major markets and key distribution hubs, the firm’s website says. Their goal: to keep food fresh from farm to fork, through temperature-controlled warehouses, trucks and railcars.
The operation started in 2012 with one warehouse in Seattle.