LA investigating construction at warehouse involved in massive fire

Los Angeles building inspectors have launched an investigation into alleged unpermitted construction at a warehouse that erupted in flames last week causing a health hazard emergency, city records show. The city's Department of Building and Safety opened the probe on June 17, the same day a fire tore through dozens of solar panels on the roof of the 500,000-square-foot cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights. The stubborn blaze took eight days to extinguish and prompted a shelter-in-place order and state of emergency declaration by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Concerns first surfaced about the safety of the solar panels following an August 2024 fire on the same roof, which was quickly extinguished by firefighters at the time, a source close to the Los Angeles Fire Department told CBS News. The earlier blaze cost the logistics company running the warehouse, Lineage, around $6 million, its chief financial officer Robert Crisci revealed in a November 2024 earnings call. Despite the damage in the 2024 fire, a review of city records showed no record of Lineage or other companies involved obtaining permits for repairs after that fire. There are also no records of building inspections of the roof from 2024 onwards. "When this new fire happened, people who had done that inspection felt it was déjà vu," said the source briefed on the investigation of the 2024 fire. The source asked not to be named as they were not authorized to speak publicly. …