Investigators with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control visited the Lineage warehouse in Boyle Heights that burned down this summer as part of a criminal probe on Tuesday, authorities said.
Officers were seen going through the warehouse offices before noon. One told a Times reporter they were there as part of a criminal investigation but declined to say what they were looking for.
At the same time, three people from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office stood at the door of the facility’s office. Two dark sedans blocked the entrance.
Lineage officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Lineage cold-storage warehouse was the site of a massive fire that took about a week to put out after starting June 17.
The battle to extinguish the blaze was hampered by several factors including solar panels on the roof that would not initially de-energize preventing access to firefighters; 50-foot-high stacks of frozen goods inside the building that posed a safety risk, preventing people from going inside; and a brief, unexpected ammonia gas leak that triggered a shelter-in-place order for surrounding buildings.
Once the fire was extinguished, Lineage was tasked with removing the 89 million pounds of meat and food stored inside as fast as possible before it spoiled in the scorching summer heat. It took the company more than six weeks to clear the site, during which residents complained about a surge of rats, flies and sickness.
The cause of the fire was not determined, but Los Angeles Fire Department investigators could not rule out the solar panels on the roof.
Martín Ramírez, who owns a car shop next to the warehouse, said when he initially arrived for work Tuesday morning, the warehouse was filled with busy workers as usual, cleaning and operating heavy machinery. Then suddenly, when he took a look at the building a few minutes later, it was empty.
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