By JOSE HERRERA, City News Service
The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday extended a declaration of local emergency related to the June warehouse fire that continues to impact Boyle Heights residents, and approved additional aid for the community.
In a 13-0 vote, the council approved a resolution extending Mayor Karen Bass’ declaration of a local emergency, which was issued on June 20, for another 60 days. Council members John Lee and Hugo Soto-Martinez were absent during the vote.
The declaration authorizes the city to mobilize state and federal resources that could be used to address the ongoing impacts from the burned-out cold-storage warehouse owned by Lineage Logistics. It also allows officials to bypass normal competitive bidding requirements for faster purchases and contracts needed to respond to the emergency. City departments and agencies that procure under this fast-tracked process are expected to report biweekly to the council.
“In Boyle Heights, and across the Eastside, residents have lived with the consequences of the Lineage warehouse fire. The flames may be out, but the emergency is not over,” said Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado, who represents the area.
A report from St. John’s Community Health, which dispatched three mobile clinics to the area after the fire erupted, found that 469 of 1,306 patients — roughly 36% — seen at the clinics were dealing with fire-related exposure issues, such as respiratory infections, eye disorders, persistent cough and asthma exacerbation.
According to the report, 26.6% of patients were diagnosed with toxic smoke exposure, while 24.5% were diagnosed with hazardous substance exposure.
“These are not abstract numbers; they are our neighbors, seniors struggling to breathe, families unable to sleep, and residents wondering whether it is safe to remain in their homes,” Jurado said.
In a similar 13-0 vote, the council approved four other motions related to providing relief to Boyle Heights residents.
— The Los Angeles Department of Transportation was instructed to boost the frequency of DASH buses on its Boyle Heights and East LA routes. Buses will be scheduled to run every 10 to 15 minutes Monday through Saturday on a modified route until the emergency declaration has been lifted.
— Los Angeles will begin an awareness campaign to better inform impacted residents of what services, programs and resources they could seek from the city.
— Jurado requested that LADOT and the Los Angeles Police Department create a process for residents to cancel any parking-related citations they received due to “extraordinary circumstances.” That criteria will be expanded to include tickets issued to vehicle owners who broke parking violations due to any stay-at-home order issued by any city department, a declaration of a local emergency at the city, county or state level, and any financial hardship caused by the crisis affecting them.
— Lastly, the council instructed the Los Angeles Fire Department and the LAPD to provide relief to residents who had their vehicles impounded. The LAFD is expected to report on towing operations during the fire emergency and detail any outreach to vehicle owners.
LAPD officials will be tasked with establishing a “post-storage impound hearing” for affected residents to get their vehicles back. LAPD officials, at a minimum, are expected to provide written notice offering such a hearing without requiring the owners to request one first, and allowing them to be conducted via teleconference.
The council also requested the chief of police to issue a department-wide notification to all sworn officers of the proper statutory authority governing the relocation or impoundment of vehicles during emergency situations.
“The burden cannot be left to residents who have already carried it for far too long,” Jurado said.
ChiChi Navarro, a member of the TransLatin@Coalition, welcomed the city’s proposal to provide residents in Boyle Heights relief from parking tickets.
“When a disaster hits, the last thing working class families should have to worry about is a parking ticket or an expensive vehicle impound fee because they were complying with, for example, emergency stay-at-home orders or dealing with sudden financial hardships,” Navarro said during Wednesday’s public comment period. “Forcing families to pay hundreds of dollars to get their cars back after a climate and health crisis is predatory.”
Rob Quan, an organizer with Unrig LA, a local government watchdog group, criticized the council for what he described as its slow efforts to respond to the emergency, since it took the council more than a month to move legislation related to the fire.
The council created an ad hoc committee focusing on the recovery of Boyle Heights, but it is not expected to meet until September. Quan compared that response to the 2025 Palisades Fire, in which the City Council was quick to stand up a similar ad hoc committee led by Councilwoman Traci Park, who represents the area.
“It’s interesting how we see this trickle of changing story on the ammonia leaks, and it’s sad to see that our council member is getting dog walked, all to protect the mayor. The idea that this is not a routine rebuild and that we’re ensuring that Boyle Heights is treated like any other community is (expletive),” Quan said.
Meanwhile, cleanup efforts were continuing at the warehouse following the massive June 17 fire, which caused the stench of rotting food and pest problems to disrupt the surrounding neighborhood for weeks after the fire was knocked down.
Lineage Logistics had not completed the food cleanup by last Friday’s deadline cited by Los Angeles officials, although the company insisted the 45-day deadline set by Bass does not expire until later this week.
Lineage officials issued a statement Tuesday saying the removal of bulk food waste from the warehouse was nearly complete, with completion expected “in the coming days.”
“The final stretch of food waste removal is the most complex and we continue to prioritize both speed and safety,” according to the company. “What remains is loose food product lodged within a six-story rack system spanning 40 miles of shelving — much in areas where heavy equipment cannot reach. Workers in full protective gear are climbing into racks more than six stories high to manually push product down. Others clear it bay by bay from the floor.”
Company officials said they have already begun the next phase of the cleanup, which involves “proactive decontamination and cleaning in parallel with removing the remaining loose debris, including power washing, disinfecting, detailing, and deodorizing.”
“Our focus remains on fully remediating the site to eliminate odor impacts on the surrounding community,” according to Lineage.