With just hours until the start of the new school year, the Los Angeles Unified School District has shared results of its environmental testing on school campuses near the spot of June's warehouse fire in Boyle Heights.
According to the Environmental Assessment Report conducted on Aug. 10, 2026, LAUSD's Office of Environmental Health and Safety conducted extensive testing at 10 schools within a three-mile radius of the Lineage cold storage warehouse, which was partially destroyed by a large fire in June that burned for nearly a week and left more than 85 million pounds of rotting food behind.
The results of those tests were then compared to an 11th school campus, which was located outside of the radius and used as a reference site.
In all, OEHS officials said that they found lead levels higher than California's "acceptable" 80-milligram threshold at two elementary schools — City Terrace and Christopher Dena.
"Based on the findings of this environmental assessment, OEHS concludes that the assessed schools remain safe for occupancy and that the Lineage fire did not result in widespread residual contamination or conditions at LAUSD campuses posing a health hazard to students or staff," the reports said.
Testing results
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Ten of the 53 schools located within a three-mile radius of the Lineage site were selected based on their "proximity to the fire location and their position relative to prevailing wind patterns that could have influenced movement of the smoke plume and the deposition of fire-related contaminants," according to the report.
OEHS personnel began environmental monitoring tests while the fire, which ignited on June 17, was still active to track information on fire-related contaminants in the air like fine particulate matter, volatile organic compounds and gases. Then, between July 28 and August 7, they
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