LOS ANGELES – Mayor Karen Bass today shared an open letter directed to the shareholders of Lineage to inform them of the impact of the Lineage warehouse fire and the subsequent odors, rodents, and flies impacting the people of Boyle Heights and East L.A.

On Friday, Mayor Bass issued an Emergency Executive Order directing City departments to pause on processing the plans submitted to rebuild the Lineage warehouse. Prior to this Order, Mayor Bass issued two other Emergency Executive Orders to mobilize resources, accelerate the clean up, and fight for transparency and accountability for Boyle Heights. In response to the lack of urgency from Lineage, Mayor Bass and local partners have expanded public health resources and brought mobile health clinics directly to the community, delivered thousands of air purifiers, provided emergency housing placements, diapers, formula, pet food, Metro cards, grocery cards, direct financial assistance, and more.

Read the full letter here:

To the Shareholders of Lineage:

I write as the Mayor of Los Angeles and – most importantly – on behalf of the families of Boyle Heights, a community that continues to bear the full weight of the consequences of one of the most significant industrial disasters in recent L.A. history.

When fire engulfed Lineage’s cold-storage facility in Boyle Heights on June 17, the impact extended far beyond the loss of a warehouse. For days, firefighters worked to battle the blaze. To this day, the putrid, offensive odor coming from the tens of millions of pounds of rotting food in the warehouse is unbearable for families. And now, flies and other pests have infested the community. Schools are preparing to reopen amid unresolved concerns about air quality. Small businesses have lost customers. Families have experienced nausea, migraines, and other illnesses.

No company chooses to experience a catastrophic fire. But every company chooses how it responds. That response reflects its leadership, operational preparedness, and corporate governance.

Unfortunately, Lineage’s response has fallen short. Multiple government agencies have served Lineage notices of violation relating to public health and safety.

Residents, public agencies, and elected officials have repeatedly sought timely information regarding the cleanup, remediation, environmental monitoring, and recovery. Too often, those requests have been met with delayed communication, limited transparency, and insufficient public engagement. Rather than demonstrating urgency equal to the scale of the disaster, the company’s response has too often been a combination of delayed and inaccurate information that has kept government officials and the public in the dark as to Lineage’s progress in removing the millions of pounds of rotting food and eliminating the putrid odors and fly infestation suffocating the Boyle Heights community.

From the outset, the City established clear expectations. Lineage was expected to remove all rotting food promptly, complete remediation under public oversight, cooperate fully with regulatory agencies, communicate transparently with the community, support environmental monitoring, and provide meaningful assistance to impacted residents, workers, schools, and businesses.

These are not extraordinary expectations. They are the minimum responsibilities of a company responding to a disaster originating from its own facility.

Recognizing the seriousness of this incident, my Administration declared a local emergency, issued emergency executive orders to accelerate recovery, brought mobile health clinics directly to the community, established voluntary evacuation and resource centers, worked with philanthropy and other partners to provide financial assistance, air purifiers, diapers and formula, pet food, grocery cards, Metro cards, emergency housing relocation, and more.

The City acted because the situation demanded decisive leadership. Lineage should have demonstrated the same urgency.

This incident is no longer simply about a warehouse fire. It now raises broader questions about Lineage’s crisis management, operational controls, environmental stewardship, executive decision-making, and Board oversight.

Residents and local business owners deserve confidence that recovery will be completed as soon as possible. Shareholders deserve confidence that management has adequately prepared for and can responsibly manage a crisis of this scale.

Accordingly, shareholders should ask the Company these questions:

• Whether Lineage has adequate financial resources, including insurance coverage, to satisfy its obligations arising from this disaster?

• The current status and timeline of cleanup and remediation?

• What public health, safety, and environmental orders, citations, or enforcement actions have been issued or initiated by government agencies and how has the company responded to them?

• What meaningful assistance has been provided to impacted residents, businesses, schools, and workers?

• What operational, safety, and governance improvements the Board has required before this or any similar facility resumes operations?

As Mayor, my responsibility is to protect the people of the City of Los Angeles.

The City will continue using every lawful authority available to protect public health, recover taxpayer costs, strengthen oversight, and provide timely information to regulatory and enforcement agencies as they evaluate the company’s operations. We expect full compliance with all emergency directives, completion of necessary clean-up and remediation, and meaningful public transparency.

The City remains prepared to work constructively with Lineage. But cooperation depends on results.

Boyle Heights did not choose this disaster. Lineage’s response is a matter of choice.

Shareholders should expect the company’s response to reflect urgency, transparency, accountability, and the financial commitment necessary to restore the community that has borne the consequences of this crisis.

The people of Boyle Heights deserve nothing less.