Neighbors near a Los Angeles cold-storage facility that burned for days and left behind millions of pounds of rotting food were shocked to discover the warehouse’s owner filed permits to rebuild at the site — despite Mayor Karen Bass’ vowing not to let it happen.
Two permits to rebuild the Lineage warehouse were filed just six weeks after the disastrous Boyle Heights fire left residents suffering from choking smoke and the stench of rotting meat.
The first application was filed the same day Mayor Karen Bass released a video warning the company not to return.
“Lineage shouldn’t even think about coming back and rebuilding this warehouse,” the mayor said. “Every day this site isn’t cleaned up, is another day families are forced to live with the consequences of an irresponsible corporation.”
Following news of the application, Bass and other local lawmakers condemned the company.
“I can’t believe they would even think about starting the rebuilding process while they haven’t cleaned up the mess they’ve created… It’s a slap in the face to the families that are forced to live with the consequences of an irresponsible corporation’s actions every single day,” the mayor posted on Instagram Tuesday.
“It’s outrageous that Lineage is seeking permits to rebuild while the disaster it created has not even been cleaned up,” Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado wrote on X.
The first application was submitted to the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, seeking to “repair and rebuild fire-damaged portions of the building to original, pre-fire condition” with no changes to its “footprint, square footage, height, use, or occupancy.”
The second one filed on Tuesday requested to “repair the fire damaged electrical installation shown in the hatched areas.”
While Bass had harsh words for Lineage, she has close ties to some of the company’s advisors.
Her former unpaid senior advisor, Yusef Robb, who ran most of the mayor’s media relations early in the year, started doing communications work for Lineage days after the Boyle Heights fire.
The lobbying form hired by Lineage after the fire is also co-founded by Shannon Murphy, who once worked as a senior aide to Bass.
During the warehouse fire, plumes of heavy smoke were visible across LA as the massive blaze burned for nearly a week at the 490,000-square-foot facility, triggering mandatory shelter-in-place orders in mid-June.
Beyond the severe air pollution, nearly 85 million pounds of frozen meat were also left decaying, releasing foul odors throughout the surrounding neighborhood.
