# Who was harmed, and how far it reached — the "Lineage fire" impact area

A profile of the people and the geography affected by the June 17, 2026 fire at the Lineage
cold-storage warehouse (1400 S. Los Palos St.). Compiled June 25, 2026. Tags: CONFIRMED / REPORTED /
ANALYSIS. *Naming note below.*

## Why "the Lineage fire" is the more honest name
Residents are increasingly calling this **"the Lineage fire,"** and that's the more accurate name. The
harm did not stay inside Boyle Heights: smoke crossed much of Southern California, firefighting runoff is
moving toward the storm-drain/Los Angeles River system, and ~85 million lbs of food are now spoiling on
site. Naming a multi-community harm after the **neighborhood** wrongly localizes it (and subtly stigmatizes
the place); naming it after the **facility that burned** points to the source. To be precise: "Lineage
fire" identifies *where the fire was* — the Lineage facility — which is undisputed; it is **not** a claim
about what *caused* the ignition, which remains under investigation. **[ANALYSIS — a framing point, made carefully]**

## Who lives here (Boyle Heights)
A working-class, immigrant, renter-majority Latino community — the profile that makes a toxic fire hardest
to evade and hardest to recover from.
- **~80,000 residents**, **~94–95% Latino/Hispanic.** **[REPORTED — Census/ACS via LA City Planning, Point2Homes]**
- **~77% renters** (only ~23% owner-occupied) — tenants have the least ability to relocate, remediate, or recover property losses. **[REPORTED — ACS]**
- **A large immigrant share:** roughly **27% non-citizens** plus ~16% naturalized — i.e., **~40%+ foreign-born.** Many households are Spanish-dominant. **[REPORTED — ACS]**
- **Median household income well below the county** (sources range ~$33K–$50K depending on tract/year vs. the LA County median; confirm the exact current ACS figure before publishing a number). **[REPORTED — confirm exact figure]**
- A young, family-dense population with many sensitive receptors (children, elderly, schools). **[REPORTED]**

**Why the demographics matter (the vulnerability lens):** renters can't easily leave or fix what they
don't own; Spanish-dominant households are why **plain-language, bilingual** information is a safety issue,
not a courtesy; and a large non-citizen population is often **wary of approaching official agencies**, which
makes an independent, trusted information source especially important. **[ANALYSIS]**

## The cumulative burden — this community was already overloaded
This is one of the most pollution-burdened communities in California, *before* this fire:
- Most Boyle Heights census tracts sit in the **97th–100th percentile** of CalEnviroScreen pollution burden; one tract ranked **#9 of ~8,000** statewide. Average pollution burden ~62.7 vs. ~42.7 for California. **[REPORTED — CalEnviroScreen / Boyle Heights Beat]**
- Legacy contamination from the **Exide** lead-acid battery plant (Vernon) exposed Boyle Heights, East LA, Commerce, Bell, Maywood, and Huntington Park to lead and arsenic for decades before its 2015 closure. **[CONFIRMED — widely documented]**
- The area is a state **AB 617 "Community Air Protection"** community (East LA / Boyle Heights / West Commerce) and is designated a **disadvantaged community.** **[CONFIRMED — CARB]**
- So this fire lands on a community already carrying a heavy, documented, cumulative environmental load — the opposite of a clean slate. **[ANALYSIS]**

## The impact footprint — air, water, food, and a wider map
**Air (the immediate zone + a regional plume).**
- The shelter-in-place area ran **south of the 101 Freeway to ~Washington Blvd, and east of Soto St to Indiana St.** **[CONFIRMED — LAFD]**
- Smoke **"blanketed nearby neighborhoods"** and spread **"across much of Southern California,"** visible for miles; air-quality concern extended to **"large swaths of LA,"** Boyle Heights and East LA most acutely. A particle-pollution advisory was issued and later expired. **[REPORTED — press]**
- EPA/AQMD said monitoring **"has not detected toxins beyond normal combustible materials,"** while officials acknowledged what was actually in the plume **remains incompletely characterized.** **[REPORTED]**

**Water / runoff (the under-covered harm).**
- Large volumes of **firefighting water mixed with ash, burned insulation, and debris** pooled in streets and drainage near the site; environmental crews are **filtering and testing "hundreds of thousands of gallons" of fire-water runoff** to intercept it **before it reaches storm drains.** LAFD's chief: "We're watching the runoff … just like we're monitoring the air." **[CONFIRMED — Fox 11 / LAFD]**
- The facility sits in the industrial corridor near the **Los Angeles River**; the storm-drain system in this area discharges toward the river, so runoff is a **downstream, multi-community concern**, not a local puddle. **[ANALYSIS — confirm the specific drainage path/outfall]**

**Food / waste.** ~**85 million lbs** of frozen food are spoiling on site, creating a secondary waste,
odor, and runoff/disposal problem now that the fire is down. **[REPORTED — press]**

**The wider map.** Putting it together, the affected zone is not "Boyle Heights" alone: the immediate
shelter zone, **East Los Angeles**, the downwind smoke footprint across the Eastside/region, and the
**downstream runoff path** toward the LA River — i.e., a corridor of predominantly working-class,
Latino, already-overburdened communities. **[ANALYSIS]**

## What still needs confirming (before publishing specifics)
- The exact **current ACS median household income** and language-spoken-at-home figures for the Boyle Heights tracts (cite the figure, don't approximate).
- The **specific storm-drain outfall / drainage path** for the runoff (to state the downstream waterway precisely).
- Any **water-quality test results** from the runoff (request from LAFD/LA Sanitation/Regional Water Board) — these would move the water harm from REPORTED to measured.
- The precise **boundary of the smoke/air footprint** (AQMD monitor data, if released) — pairs with the pending AQMD records request.

## Sources
- Census/ACS demographics — LA City Planning Boyle Heights demographic profile; Point2Homes; Census Reporter (Boyle Heights PUMA).
- CalEnviroScreen burden — OEHHA CalEnviroScreen; Boyle Heights Beat ("ranks No. 9 on California pollution list").
- AB 617 community — California Air Resources Board (East LA / Boyle Heights / West Commerce).
- Exide legacy — widely documented (DTSC; press).
- Fire smoke + runoff — ABC7, Fox 11 ("concerns shift to spoiled food, runoff"), NBC LA, LAFD statements.

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*Compiled June 25, 2026. Demographic and burden figures are REPORTED from public datasets and should be
cited to the exact ACS/CalEnviroScreen tract values before publication; the runoff and smoke facts are
from on-the-record press and LAFD statements. Not legal or medical advice.*
