A 500,000-Square-Foot Warehouse Burned for Days and Smoke Reached “Most of the City” — and Spencer Pratt Says the Mayor Was in Chicago.

A massive fire tore through a half-million-square-foot cold-storage warehouse in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, and by the weekend the Los Angeles Fire Department reported the smell of smoke had “reached most of the city.” The blaze, at a Lineage Logistics facility on South Los Palos Street, started Wednesday afternoon, June 17, was knocked down, then reignited — and kept burning into a fifth day.

With roughly 85 million pounds of frozen meat, fish and wheat decaying inside a powered-down freezer, a rooftop solar array feeding the flames and lithium-ion batteries and an ammonia leak on site, the incident outran ordinary firefighting. Residents were told to shelter in place, then to mask up; Mayor Karen Bass (D) declared a local emergency Saturday, June 20, and Governor Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency the next morning.

Into that smoke stepped Spencer Pratt — the reality-TV figure who lost his home in the January 2025 Palisades Fire and ran a long-shot campaign against Bass on her fire response. His charge this time was blunt: “Karen was sipping cocktails in Chicago,” he said, while the city choked. It is his allegation, sharply worded and unverified by the Mayor’s office — and it landed because the geography of where a mayor is when a city burns is now a live political fact in Los Angeles.

• ~500,000 sq ft — size of the Lineage Logistics cold-storage warehouse that burned for days in Boyle Heights · Source: Washington Examiner; ABC7
• 85 million lbs — of frozen meat, fish and wheat decaying inside the powered-down freezer, prompting biohazard fears · Source: FOX 11; CBS News LA
• June 17, 2026 — fire started shortly before 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, reignited Thursday, and burned into a fifth day · Source: KTLA; LAist
• 5.5 million — N95 respirator masks made available for distribution as smoke reached 'most of the city' · Source: ABC7; KTLA
• 2 emergencies — Mayor Bass (D) declared a local emergency June 20; Gov. Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency June 21 · Source: Office of the Mayor; NBC LA

The blaze broke out shortly before 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 17, at the Lineage Logistics cold-storage facility in the 1400 block of South Los Palos Street in Boyle Heights, just east of downtown. Fire officials said it started on the rooftop solar panels and spread across the roof, while an ammonia leak forced crews into a defensive posture. The fire was extinguished — then reignited Thursday after crews found it burning inside a freezer area, deep beneath structural debris and the solar array. Because the seat of the fire was buried, the LAFD resorted to tactics unusual for a structure fire: continuous water drops from at least three helicopters alongside ground-level ladder pipes.

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The smoke, not the flames, became the public-health story. By Saturday morning the LAFD said in a situation update that the smell of smoke “had reached most of the city,” urging vulnerable residents across the broader L.A. area to take precautions even outdoors. Shelter-in-place orders for neighborhoods near the warehouse were issued, lifted, then reinstated as crews ventilated the building. The South Coast Air Quality Management District posted advisories as the plume drifted over downtown and into neighboring cities like South Pasadena. The city opened a 24-hour Smoke Relief Center at Pecan Recreation Center, and the county opened a respite center at City Terrace Park.

On the chemistry, the LAFD struck a more measured note than the “toxic” headlines. The department said its monitoring detected no significant levels of toxic metals and nothing more hazardous than what is found in ordinary fire smoke; monitors picked up slightly elevated bromine and chlorine during spikes, which the air district said are typical in trace amounts during structure fires and stayed below short-term health thresholds. The practical guidance, though, was unambiguous: limit outdoor exposure, run air filtration, and mask up if you are near the plume.

On Saturday afternoon, June 20, Mayor Karen Bass (D) issued a declaration of local emergency to mobilize additional city resources. “While the LAFD continues making progress, this is a major, multi-jurisdictional incident,” her statement read. “I’m issuing an emergency declaration to ensure the City has the resources it needs as this operation continues and to keep the community safe.” The declaration cited the rooftop solar array, on-site hazardous materials and lithium-ion batteries, and the roughly 85 million pounds of decaying food — a potential biohazard — as conditions beyond the reach of traditional firefighting. Governor Gavin Newsom (D) declared a state of emergency Sunday morning, unlocking state resources.

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Spencer Pratt’s charge is the part that traveled. “Karen was sipping cocktails in Chicago when the Boyle Heights Fire erupted,” he said, “just as she was sipping cocktails in Ghana when our Palisades Fire erupted.” He added that the warehouse had suffered a solar-panel fire two years earlier, accused Bass of having “slashed the LAFD budget,” and claimed the burning solar panels were “spewing out deadly heavy metals.” These are Pratt’s characterizations. The “cocktails in Chicago” line in particular is his allegation: reporting indicates Bass had traveled to Chicago around the opening of the Obama Presidential Center, but the Washington Examiner notes its own piece does not independently confirm her location, and her office has not addressed it. On the chemistry, the LAFD’s own monitoring contradicted the “deadly heavy metals” framing.

Pratt’s feud with Bass predates this fire. After the Palisades Fire destroyed his and his parents’ homes in January 2025, he became one of the mayor’s loudest critics, ran an independent mayoral bid built around her response, and accused Bass and Newsom of being “alleged criminal partners” in a disaster that killed roughly a dozen people. Bass, for her part, has called Pratt “reprehensible” for what she framed as exploiting the grief of fire victims for political gain. In June 2026, Pratt announced he was “teaming up” with the mayor’s own brother, Kenneth Bass, whose Malibu home burned and who joined a class-action suit against the City and the Department of Water and Power over the empty Santa Ynez Reservoir during the Palisades Fire.

“Karen was sipping cocktails in Chicago when the Boyle Heights Fire erupted, just as she was sipping cocktails in Ghana when our Palisades Fire erupted.”

Spencer Pratt — June 2026 (his allegation; Bass's office has not confirmed her whereabouts)

The reason “cocktails in Chicago” stings is the Ghana precedent, and that one is documented. When the Palisades Fire ignited in January 2025, Mayor Karen Bass (D) was on an official delegation in Ghana for a presidential inauguration and had to scramble home as her city burned — a sequence that became the defining image of the disaster’s response and dogged her for the rest of the year. President Donald Trump (R) hammered the same point publicly: “Mayor Bass, she was in Africa during the fire… she decided to take a trip to Africa.” Bass pushed back, calling Trump’s broader attacks “nonsense” and saying “nothing he said is actually accurate” — but the fact of the Ghana trip itself was never in dispute. That is the template Pratt is now mapping onto the warehouse fire, whether or not the Chicago detail holds up.

Strip away the celebrity feud and the verifiable record is this: a 500,000-square-foot warehouse stuffed with 85 million pounds of food, lithium-ion batteries and a rooftop solar array burned for days in a dense Los Angeles neighborhood, pushed smoke over much of the city, and required two emergency declarations before it was contained. The LAFD said the air was less dangerous than the headlines suggested; residents still spent days indoors and in masks. Mayor Karen Bass (D) declared the emergency and her office has not addressed where she was when it started. Spencer Pratt says she was in Chicago with a cocktail — an allegation, not a confirmed fact, but one that resonates precisely because she was indisputably abroad in Ghana when the Palisades burned. Whether the Chicago detail is accurate is a question only the Mayor’s office can settle, and so far it hasn’t. We’ll update if it does.

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