Greg Lehmkuhl, Lineage president and CEO
LOS ANGELES — A cold storage company is blaming a rooftop solar developer and its contractor for the fire that destroyed its 500,000-square-foot warehouse in East Los Angeles last summer, according to a lawsuit that seeks $1 billion in damages.
Lineage Inc., which manages hundreds of facilities that hold refrigerated and frozen food products, filed the lawsuit on Sept. 10 in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Altus Power Inc. and the solar company’s contractor, Pearce Services LLC.
The complaint accuses the two companies of negligence, health and safety code violations and breach of contract in the wake of the June 17 warehouse fire in Boyle Heights. Solar arrays are typically installed on roofs to reduce such cold storage facilities’ dependence on local power grids.
The warehouse’s destruction was not the result of a warehouse fire but a solar fire, according to the lawsuit, which refers to Altus as the owner of the warehouse’s solar array. The same installation caused a smaller fire in August of 2024, the complaint says, and more than 200 solar connector failures have been identified since.
Despite Lineage’s call for more safety measures to prevent such incidents, “Altus and Pearce disregarded Lineage’s written safety directives and re-energized a defective rooftop solar array before required safety checks were completed – days before the fire,” the plaintiff company said in a news release.
Lineage’s president and CEO, Greg Lehmkuhl accused Altus and Pearce of starting the blaze and then refusing to take part in remediation and cleanup efforts in the neighborhood.
“The record is clear: This was a solar fire,” Lehmkuhl said in a statement. “Cold storage is not a risk to communities – it is an essential service that lowers food costs, expands food access and creates jobs. We are grateful to each and every worker who contributed over 210,000 hours to complete this unprecedented and complex cleanup in record time.”
Representatives of both defendant companies disputed the allegations in the lawsuit.
“Lineage’s statement is riddled with misinformation in a blatant attempt to deflect blame for their role in this matter, including any damage caused by the release of substances from the warehouse, not the solar panel,” a spokesperson for Los Palos Street Operating LLC, an Altus Power subsidiary, said in a statement emailed to the Southern California Record. “We take safety extremely seriously, and our strong safety record reflects our rigorous protocols and response procedures, in contrast to Lineage, whose track record is well documented.”
The company will contest Lineage’s allegations in court, the spokesperson said, adding that Lineage, as the tenant-operator, is responsible for remediation and cleanup.
A Pearce Services spokesperson stressed that the cause of the warehouse fire is currently under investigation and that it’s premature for anyone to draw any conclusions about the cause.
“The safety of our employees, our clients and the communities where we operate is Pearce’s highest priority, and Pearce remains committed to cooperating fully with the Los Angeles Fire Department and investigators as they complete their work,” the spokesperson said in a statement emailed to the Record. “Pearce looks forward to vigorously defending itself against these allegations through the legal process.”
The lawsuit accuses Altus and Pearce of ignoring Lineage’s June 11 directive not to re-energize the solar system until safety tests of the system were completed. In the wake of the fire, Lineage provided affected community members with financial aid, air conditioners, air purifiers and grocery cards, the company said.
