Boyle Heights Fire: Crews Gain Interior Access, Solar Panel Subcontractors Blamed as Cause

Since the Boyle Heights cold-storage warehouse fire ignited last week and grew into a multi-day crisis involving a local emergency declaration and school relocations across the Los Angeles Unified School District, fire crews overnight Monday gained interior access to the building for the first time, according to NBC Los Angeles.

Previous days saw crews fighting the blaze from the outside, unable to penetrate the structure. Getting inside the building is a prerequisite for any real suppression of a fire this entrenched.

Who Started It?

The company occupying the facility told NBC Los Angeles it believes the fire was caused by subcontractors who were working on the roof's solar panels. This is the company's stated position, not a finding by fire investigators or the Los Angeles Fire Department. No charges related to the fire's origin have been reported, and no official cause determination has been announced.

If true, the solar-panel-subcontractor theory would shift liability toward a third-party contractor rather than the facility's primary tenant or owner. Whether fire investigators or insurers accept that framing remains to be seen.

Air Quality and School Disruptions Ongoing

Smoke from the fire continues to affect air quality across surrounding communities. Some summer school programs in the Los Angeles Unified School District were relocated due to those air quality concerns, NBC Los Angeles reported. LAUSD has not announced when or whether those programs will return to their original locations.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued an emergency declaration on Saturday in connection with the ongoing fire. That declaration remains active.

Inspection and Infrastructure Questions

Critics have raised questions about why it took over a week of burning, school closures, and an emergency declaration before fire crews were able to get inside the building. Large cold-storage warehouses are notoriously difficult to fight because of their construction, insulation, and the density of stored material. But the scale of the disruption to surrounding neighborhoods has renewed scrutiny of whether the facility's permitting, fire suppression infrastructure, and inspection history were adequate. None of those questions have been answered publicly.

The NBC Los Angeles report does not provide a containment percentage, an estimated timeline to full suppression, or any official fire department assessment of what gaining interior access means for the operation. The company's solar-panel claim also appears without any named executive or spokesperson, making it harder to evaluate.

One Arrest, Unrelated to the Fire

NBC Los Angeles also reported that Rajean Morgan Tabor, 35, remains in custody with bail set at $750,000 and that a child was taken to the hospital with a minor injury. The report does not explicitly tie Tabor's arrest to the warehouse fire, and the surrounding context suggests it is a separate matter.

What Comes Next

Now that crews are inside the building, the immediate question is how long until a containment percentage can be established and what the remediation timeline looks like. The LAUSD has not announced when displaced summer programs will return to their original facilities.