Businesses say smoke from Boyle Heights warehouse fire is keeping customers away

NBC Los Angeles reports on the economic fallout from a massive warehouse fire in Boyle Heights that ignited last Wednesday at a 500,000-square-foot Lineage cold-storage facility holding 85 million pounds of frozen food; the fire, believed to have originated in solar panels, has blanketed the region in smoke for nearly a week, with LAFD Chief Jaime Moore expressing confidence in extinguishing it by midweek. The article is sourced through direct interviews with affected business owners—Claudia Hernandez reports a 70% drop in customers at her food truck, and Gambino Torrio Saenz confirms sales declines at a nearby grocery store—adding specificity to the economic impact claim; bylined reporting from a major local news outlet with named officials and direct quotes meets standard local journalism practices. Cross-checking against independent coverage from FOX 11 and ABC7 confirms the fire's timeline, facility details, and ongoing air quality concerns; ABC7 adds that Lineage attributes the cause to "testing conducted by solar panel contractors," providing slightly more specificity than the NBC article's "under investigation" framing. Watch for the completion of the fire extinguishment effort expected midweek and whether follow-up investigations into the solar panel contractor testing yield formal findings; monitor for any business recovery timeline as air quality improves.