Hundreds of Boyle Heights residents suffered health problems after a fire at a cold storage facility burned stubbornly for days, including respiratory infections, eye disorders and persistent cough, according to a new study.
The St. John’s Community Health study found the symptoms were “directly related to toxic exposure and smoke inhalation” and raises more questions about the long-term effect of the fire on people who live in the community.
The report tallies symptoms and the diagnosis of 1,306 patients who were treated at mobile clinics during a roughly six-week period after the fire started June 17.
“The health impacts from the Lineage fire are serious and severe,” said Jim Mangia, chief executive of St. John’s Community Health, in an interview. “This is clearly widespread.”
The findings echo the experiences residents living near the warehouse have shared for months.
Data from government officialsshow the air near the Lineage refrigerated warehouse fire carried astronomically high levels of smoke and soot, surpassing some of the worst air pollution during the Los Angeles County fires in January 2025.
The number of people going to emergency rooms with throat pain and concerns about smoke inhalation increased during this period.
Lineage officials declined to comment on the health study.
The data released Tuesday by St. John’s Community Health come from three mobile clinics that were deployed into the community after the fire ignited, according to a statement from the group.
Of 1,306 patients, 35.9% met “fire-related exposure criteria,” meaning they showed symptoms such as an acute upper respiratory infection, eye disorder, conjunctivitis, cough, asthma exacerbation or other respiratory problem.
Those patients who were treated for smoke-related issues were overwhelmingly Latina women, according to the report.
More than 91% of patients were Latino, and more than 64% of them were women. More than 63% of the patients were 50 or older.
Dozens of other patients described symptoms such as anxiety, acute stress and insomnia, according to the report.
“St. John’s report puts hard numbers behind what Boyle Heights residents have been telling us since June 17: this was not simply a warehouse fire — it was a public health emergency, and its effects did not end when the flames went out,” Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado said in a statement.
Jurado said the City Council on Thursday was set to consider a motion to have the Los Angeles Housing Department find funding to pay for HVAC cleaning, odor remediation and air-filtration systems for seniors and low-income households affected by the fire.
“Recovery will not end when the site is cleared,” Jurado said in the statement. “Lineage and every responsible party must be held accountable for the full cost of recovery.”
In a statement Tuesday, Lineage said it was in the final stretch of removing food from the site, which involved using heavy equipment and workers climbing into racks six stories high.
Public records obtained by The Times showed that, as the fire burned for eight days, the number of patients who went to nearby hospitals reporting throat pain and concerns about smoke inhalation spiked. More than three times as many people went to emergency rooms within 10 miles of the warehouse mentioning the fire or smoke inhalation than two weeks prior.
The fire, believed to have started in the roof of the 500,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse, immediately raised health concerns because of the thick smoke that spread across the area. No evacuation order was issued for residents who lived next door.
The fire did prompt two shelter-in-place orders when the fire reached an ammonia line, but Los Angeles Fire Department officials and Lineage say no ammonia was detected.
The fire was declared knocked down on June 24, but 88 million pounds of rotting food remained inside. After the smoke subsided, residents reported feeling effects from the stench of rotting meat and food from the warehouse interior, where it had been stored frozen on tall racks that were hundreds of feet across. Amid repeated heat waves and the terrible smell, residents said they felt nauseous, got headaches and lost their appetite.
As of Wednesday, 97% of the waste inside has been cleared, according to a Lineage website dedicated to the cleanup effort. The company missed an Aug. 14 deadline — issued by Mayor Karen Bass — to clean up the waste within 45 days.
For residents and community groups, the report validates what they’ve been experiencing firsthand.
“This is what we’ve been seeing,” said Alma Marquez, an organizer with the group Protect L.A. Now, which has been doing outreach and advocating for residents affected by the fire.
Although the report spotlights some of the issues, Marquez said, a more thorough study needs to be done to get a handle on the entire health effects of the fire.
Mangia said that healthcare providers saw residents with mostly respiratory issues, but that many of the residents were also exhibiting rashes and skin irritations.
The numbers, Mangia said, are an indication that healthcare providers need to track not just the immediate impacts of the fire but also the long-term effects.
Although the number of patients coming to the clinics has decreased over time, Mangia said, there is still concern about other issues tied to the warehouse site, such as the pests.
“You can’t go to Boyle Heights without being inundated with flies, and the streets are inundated with rats,” he said.
As the cleanup has progressed, Lineage has been racking up thousands of dollars in fines from public health regulators — a drop in the bucket for the global cold storage juggernaut. Last year, the company was valued at more than $4 billion when it went public.
Although some residents have sought medical care for worsening symptoms, Marquez said, she is concerned many decide to just bear it and soldier on without going to an emergency room or health clinic — which leads to incomplete data.
“I think this is massive underreporting,” Marquez said. “People have been getting sick at home, by themselves, thinking it’s just them.”
The post Hundreds suffered ill health from massive Boyle Heights warehouse fire, new survey finds appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
