Boyle Heights warehouse fire officially knocked down after burning more than a week, LAFD says

A week after a massive warehouse fire first ignited in Boyle Heights, firefighters are close to having it fully knocked down.

A week after a massive fire first ignited at the Lineage cold-storage warehouse in Boyle Heights, firefighters are close to having it fully knocked down.

Eyewitness News spotted several water drops at the site on Wednesday.

Wednesday marked one full week that the Lineage cold-storage warehouse has been burning, and finally, the fire is expected to be extinguished by midnight.

"The goal, from our fire chief himself, would like us to have a knockdown on this fire by tonight at midnight, however, safety is our No. 1 priority, so we're managing that," said Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Milo Cope.

What started as solar panels igniting on the roof turned into a full-blown catastrophe, paralyzing parts of Boyle Heights and East L.A. as smoke inundated the region day and night.

"They want the fire to be out. They've been waiting, and it's the seventh day of this fire," said Kimberly Ortega, the communications director for L.A. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis.

There are signs that the operation is set to transition from firefight to cleanup. With the fire 90% contained and fire engines leaving the scene, environmental cleanup crews were spotted arriving on Wednesday, set to move in as soon as the flames are fully extinguished.

Over the weekend, a Chinook helicopter was spotted performing water drops on the center of the building, even as the corner of the roof had reignited and was burning out of control. LAFD revealed crews were trying to intentionally collapse the roof, or at least punch a hole in it to gain access to the fire inside.

"We were even dropping 3,000 gallons at a time with the Chinook helicopter to try and blow that roof out," Cope said. "We weren't very successful with that, but it did put a few small holes in that roof. Now, these helicopters are finding heat directly below one of those holes, so we're using them to drop about 480 gallons of water at a time through that hole, and hopefully hit the fire itself down there."

A warehouse fire that's choked Southern California with smoke for one week could finally be nearing its end.

Crews say they hope to have the stubborn fire fully extinguished by the end of the week. Once that happens, a massive cleanup effort will begin.

The layout of the sprawling cold storage facility has made it a challenging firefight, as well as the large amounts of foam insulation that lined the structure, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

"Cold storage facilities like this have historically been among the most challenging fires to fight," the LAFD said.

Boyle Heights residents say ongoing smoke and poor air quality are affecting their health and daily lives as the warehouse fire continues to burn.

Fire crews expect to extinguish the fire this week. But neighbors say they remain concerned about the fire's impact on their health.

Boyle Heights residents say ongoing smoke and poor air quality are affecting their health and daily lives as the warehouse fire continues to burn.

Rosa Vasquez said the conditions have forced her family to stay indoors.

"Your eyes get irritated. Your throat gets itchy. You cough and there's dust everywhere, ash everywhere," Vasquez said.

Vasquez added, "We're staying indoors. We just leave to run errands really quick and just go back."

Since last week, Vasquez said the smoke and poor air quality have disrupted life for her family, including her elderly mother who lives with them.

"We can't do anything. We can't go outside with her. We can't do much because it's hard," she said.

Javon Cameron said the smoke has affected his sinuses.

"It smells like barbecue but it don't really smell like barbecue. You can tell something is burning," Cameron said.

Aubrey Leyva said the situation has been frightening.

"We live right by the fire so it's very scary... We close the doors, we close the windows," Leyva said.

A fire that broke out a week ago at a cold storage facility in Boyle Heights continues to to burn. Even after peeling the siding off multiple sides of the Lineage building over the last two days, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says they still have not reached the core of the fire.

A fire that broke out a week ago at a cold storage facility in Boyle Heights continues to to burn. Even after peeling the siding off multiple sides of the Lineage building over the last two days, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass says they still have not reached the core of the fire.

"They're almost there. They believe that they should be able to get to the core in the next few days. They needed specialized equipment in order to do that. The equipment came late -- it actually came yesterday morning -- it came from Texas. It actually needed to be assembled. And so they didn't put these water canons, special water cannons that we actually didn't have in the city of Los Angeles, and so they assembled it. They started using water cannons last night," said Bass.

As residents are forced to wait several more days, they continue to suffer.

"It's crazy with the air smell and then I have kids too. A little scary," said East L.A. resident Karmen Amar.

Amar is 8 months pregnant with her third child and has been dealing with the smoke from this fire for a week.

"It's not good for anybody. My grandparents live close by, two blocks from the fire, so they evacuated two days ago... It just keeps going. It's not good for me to breathe in," Amar said.

She joined other affected residents at an air filter distribution Tuesday afternoon at Our Lady of Victory Church in East L.A.

In addition to providing a thousand air purifiers, L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis' Office partnered with Via Care to provide health screenings.

"Respiratory issues, so we are doing some nebulizer treatments. We're also seeing a lot of headaches, irritation of the eyes, the ears, especially the throat," said Via Care Chief of Operations Lourdes Olivares.

As residents continue dealing with the effects of the fire, including displacement, Bass says she plans to be proactive in preventing another incident like this one, or even worse.

"I do want to look at now the warehouses throughout the city to see whether or not there's toxic materials there and another disaster waiting to happen," Bass said.