Cold storage giant Lineage blames the \u201creckless conduct\u201d of rooftop solar developer Altus Power \u2013 a subsidiary of private equity firm TPG \u2013 for igniting the blaze that tore through its 500,000-square-foot warehouse in Boyle Heights this summer, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.<\/p>\n
In a complaint filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, Lineage accused Altus and its contractor Pearce Services of sparking the fire on June 17 while allegedly attempting to restore power to the solar array spanning the equivalent of eight football fields across the top of the cold storage warehouse at 1400 S. Los Palos St. Lineage seeks more than $1 billion in damages plus punitive damages and attorneys\u2019 fees from Altus and Pearce for claims of negligence, state health and safety code violations, and breach of contract, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis lawsuit is about Altus and Pearce starting this fire and then being nowhere to be found when the community needed help,\u201d Lineage\u2019s Chief Executive Greg Lehmkuhl said in a statement Thursday. \u201cThis was a solar fire. Cold storage is not a risk to communities.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Los Angeles Fire Department has not yet released the findings of its investigation into the cause of the Boyle Heights fire, Lineage\u2019s lawsuit redirects the blame squarely at Altus for allegedly setting off an inferno that burned for eight days, triggered local and state emergency orders, and left the neighborhood stewing in a noxious cloud of fumes as crews worked for more than two months to haul away 85 million pounds of rotten food left inside the former giant freezer.<\/p>\n
Representatives for Altus and Pearce were quick to contest the claims.<\/p>\n
The complaint \u201cis riddled with misinformation,\u201d a spokesperson for Altus said in a statement, and added that Lineage\u2019s lawsuit is \u201ca blatant attempt to deflect blame for their role in this matter, including any damage caused by the release of substances from the warehouse, not the solar panel.\u201d The spokesperson also argued that Altus\u2019 safety track record is strong, thanks to the firm\u2019s \u201crigorous protocols and response procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Pearce, which is owned by brokerage giant CBRE, said in a statement that \u201cit is premature for anyone to draw conclusions,\u201d since the cause of the fire is still under investigation. A spokesperson for CBRE declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Looking for accountability<\/p>\n
The suit comes amid a flurry of class-action lawsuits against Lineage and a larger political backlash as Mayor Karen Bass and state lawmakers push for new legislation seeking stricter oversight and accountability from the world\u2019s largest cold storage company and the niche industrial sector it represents. <\/p>\n
While cold storage warehouses have proliferated rapidly in metro areas across the country over the past decade, the slow pace of development in Southern California has left the region with the oldest and most supply-constrained inventory in the country, with an average building age of 52 years, according to a report published this year by Newmark. <\/p>\n
The complaint alleges Altus and Pearce rebooted power to the array beginning June 5 despite Lineage\u2019s written instructions to complete specific safety tests first, including voltage checks and a review of possible duplicate device serial numbers. The fire ignited around 2:30 p.m. on June 17, while Pearce work crews were performing testing, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n
Altus, which was acquired by private equity titan TPG last year for $2.2 billion, took over the lease for the Los Palos Street rooftop in 2023 after purchasing the solar array that had been installed there in 2020 by a developer arm of renewable energy investment firm True Green Capital Management.<\/p>\n
California strongly incentivizes commercial solar development as part of the state\u2019s clean energy goals and in 2022 codified solar installation in the state\u2019s building code for all new warehouses. That has given renewable energy firms a queue to expand in California, with Altus chief among them. The Stamford, Connecticut-based firm oversees 100 sites in California and has recently grown its footprint with a 1.1-million-square-foot array in San Bernadino completed in March.<\/p>\n
The blaze that broke out in Boyle Heights on June 17 was not the first fire in that array. Flames broke out in the same solar equipment in August 2024 and were extinguished within an hour, but the incident spurred Lineage to demand Altus follow stronger safety measures, according to the firm\u2019s lawsuit. Altus hired Pearce, an electrical contractor, in February to complete reconfiguration work on the Los Palos Street site. By May, inspection records cited in the complaint show more than 200 \u201cconnector failures\u201d across the array, including in the section where Lineage claims the fire began. Inspections records cited in the complaint also state Pearce had used thousands of mismatched \u201cjumper\u201d connections and loose, cross-threaded bolts across the array.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cold storage giant Lineage blames the \u201creckless conduct\u201d of rooftop solar developer Altus Power \u2013 a subsidiary of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,52,51,150259,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-463195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lineage","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}