{"id":476169,"date":"2026-09-26T06:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T06:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476169\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T06:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T06:02:10","slug":"report-looks-at-metals-in-water-from-boyle-heights-warehouse-fire-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/476169\/","title":{"rendered":"Report looks at metals in water from Boyle Heights warehouse fire \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new report<\/a> sheds light to the heavy metals that researchers say were carried from the burning Lineage Logistics cold food storage warehouse in Boyle Heights<\/a> into the Los Angeles River.<\/p>\n

Researchers from UCLA’s Department of Environmental Sciences said at the peak of the fire, which started June 17 and flared up for days, firefighters were spraying 12,000 gallons of water per minute on the nearly 500,000 square-foot warehouse east of downtown Los Angeles. Some of that runoff water containing potentially toxic metals entered drains that lead to the Los Angeles River and, eventually, the ocean, researchers said.<\/p>\n

During and after the fire, researchers tested runoff water around the warehouse and water in the river both upstream and downstream from the property. Samples also were collected at a spout from a drainage line where it meets the river, a containment boom set up to hold water and near Cudahy Park.<\/p>\n

“The metals that we found and other contaminants, those would be a concern, particularly for anyone using the river downstream,” said Yoshira Ornelas Van Horne, of the UCLA Department of Public Health. “You know, this does dump into the ocean.”<\/p>\n

Members of East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice raised concerns about water runoff draining into the river, the UCLA report noted. <\/p>\n

The report said from June 19 to 24 the runoff water from the fire contained levels of the metals chromium and lead that were 2.4 times higher than any recorded measurement of the Los Angeles River from 2018 to 2024. The report also said the concentration of zinc in the water at that time was 11 times higher than any previous measurement, and that iron was 23 times higher than prior readings.<\/p>\n

“At these levels, our main concern was aquatic life and potential impacts to any fish or other aquatic systems that might be present in the river,” Ornelas Van Horne said.<\/p>\n

Researchers said the runoff water could have affected people, too. Anyone who came into contact with river water downstream from the Lineage Logistics warehouse during the time of testing could have been exposed to the metals, researches said. Anyone who was in the ocean in Long Beach near where the river empties into the ocean also might have come in contact with metals, they added.<\/p>\n

Exposure can lead to brain damage, stunted growth and learning and behavioral problems, the report said.<\/p>\n

“For a lot of these concerns, it\u2019s more about potential accidental ingestion that may occur while people are out there playing,” Ornelas Van Horne said.<\/p>\n

The report did not test whether the metals entered soil or groundwater in Boyle Heights.<\/p>\n

NBCLA reached out to Lineage Logistics for a response on the report’s findings.<\/p>\n

Lineage, the buildings’ tenant-operator, leases the rooftop to a third-party solar panel company that installed a solar array on top of the structure. The company has said it believes the fire started when the subcontractors were working on the solar panels.<\/p>\n

In an after-action report<\/a> issued this week, the LAFD said ot unable to determine the cause of the fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new report sheds light to the heavy metals that researchers say were carried from the burning Lineage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476170,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[22336,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":["post-476169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-boyle-heights","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","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\/476169","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=476169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/476169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/476170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=476169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=476169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=476169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}