LAFD Log Records an “Active Ammonia Leak” at 3:12 p.m. on Day One of the Boyle Heights Warehouse Fire

Lineage Inc. and Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore have said no ammonia was released. A dispatch log obtained by Capital & Main, and the company's own 13,000-parts-per-billion reading, complicate that account.

Firefighters at the Lineage Inc. cold storage warehouse in Boyle Heights identified “an active amonia [sic] leak” on the building’s roof at 3:12 p.m. on June 17, 2026, about 35 minutes after a 911 caller first reported the fire, according to a Los Angeles Fire Department computer-aided dispatch log obtained by Capital & Main through a public records request and published by LAist on August 18, 2026.

The warehouse burned for eight days in June 2026. Anhydrous ammonia is a common refrigerant in cold storage warehouses and is also toxic; it can irritate the respiratory system and, in large doses, damage the lungs and eyes or kill. In 2020, a contractor at a Lineage facility in Statesville, North Carolina, was killed and others injured during an ammonia release.

The log and the statements

Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Jaime Moore told CBS LA on the first day of the fire that ammonia had escaped. “We believe an ammonia line was then compromised, because we had a large powerful stream of ammonia coming out,” Moore said. In July 2026, Moore reportedly said no ammonia was detected. The department has not released the results of its monitoring for ammonia or other toxics during the fire; department spokesperson Branden Silverman told Capital & Main that “collecting it will take some time.”

The dispatch log notes “an unknown vapor cloud” over the warehouse one minute after the leak entry. Moore reportedly said later that the cloud was cold air mixing with hot air and contained no ammonia. By 3:25 p.m., the log again notes an ammonia leak and says crews would fight the fire in “defensive mode” — from outside the structure. At the same time, the Fire Department told residents to close windows and doors, shut off air conditioners and shelter in place.

Lineage reported a “potential spill” to the California Office of Emergency Services about 90 minutes after the fire began, according to a hazardous materials spill report the agency provided to Capital & Main. The report paraphrases a Lineage representative, whose name is redacted, saying: “There is no potential release of anhydrous ammonia and no concerned [sic] of release.”

Readings weeks later

Ammonia can remain in the atmosphere for about a week, according to the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Levels near the Boyle Heights site were still elevated more than a month after the fire, per the Capital & Main report.

The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment advises that ammonia at 4,500 parts per billion or higher can cause adverse health effects during short-term exposures. One Lineage reading on La Puerta Street, no more than about 50 feet from homes, registered 13,000 parts per billion on July 10, 2026. Another registered 7,000 parts per billion. A reading near the warehouse on Prado Street reached 3,000 parts per billion on August 6, 2026, and a fenceline measurement about 50 yards from Indiana Street reached 4,000 parts per billion on July 3, 2026.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District found ammonia outdoors at Eastman Elementary School, about half a mile from the warehouse, at levels “much higher than typical levels in the air in urban Los Angeles,” according to Jill Johnston, an associate professor of environmental and occupational health at UC Irvine, who reviewed the data. An August 10, 2026 report by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety found elevated ammonia inside a classroom at the Eastman Early Education Center and one at Humphreys Avenue Elementary School.

Denials, and an EPA deadline

Lineage spokesperson Melanie Mendoza said, “At no point has ammonia reached a level that would pose a health risk.” She had earlier denied any “measurable ammonia concentrations” in the community, then said levels had not exceeded the state acute-exposure threshold. On August 6, 2026, Dominic DiCarlo, Lineage vice president of global safety and compliance, testified at a South Coast Air Quality Management District hearing that “we’re highly confident that ammonia from the refrigeration system was not compromised,” and that “no ammonia readings were picked up outside the facility.” He did not specify when those readings were taken. The company agreed at that hearing to 93 conditions to mitigate odors and reduce residents’ exposure to toxics, including added fenceline monitoring.

Mohan Balagopalan, one of the five panelists presiding, said of the company’s no-release assertion: “I would take that with a grain of salt.”

Los Angeles Public Press reported on August 4, 2026 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency demanded Lineage produce a detailed description and timeline of what happened, with an August 17, 2026 deadline. There has been no publicly released investigation of whether a hazardous ammonia leak occurred.