Givin' Props To The Firefighters on 9/11

The Militant will keep this post short on words.

Many people have their various feelings and opinions on September 11, 2001, from the jingoistic, to the mournful, to the shameful, to the conspiratorial. Everyone has a right to their own feelings.

Today, the Militant visited Los Angeles' World Trade Center Memorial at the Los Angeles Fire Department's Frank Hotchkin Memorial Training Center, just outside of Dodgertown in Elysian Park. The memorial includes an actual piece of the South Tower's second-floor steel column, which was damaged, yet still standing after the tower's collapse.

On the rear of the monument, pieces of the concrete floor can still be seen at the top edge (pictured below).
A plaque at the base of the memorial (pictured below) dedicates the structure to the FDNY firefighters who perished in the line of duty eight years ago today,
The facility itself has a similarly-themed story. It is located on what was formerly the Naval and Marine Corps Reserve Center. Nearly 29 years ago this month, a fire broke out in the main building and Frank Hotchkin, an LAFD firefighter, was killed while fighting the blaze, which was blamed on an electrical problem. In 1995, the military sold the facility to the LAFD, which turned it into a training center and, most appropriately, dedicated it memory of Hotchkin.

A ceremony today, dedicated to the 9/11 firefighters, as well as the first responders of last year's Metrolink disaster took place at the facility today.

A banner in memory of LACFD's Ted Hall and Arnie Quinones was put up just outside the Sunset gate of Dodger Stadium, where the public memorial for both firefighters will be held Saturday morning:
One of the Militant's operatives applied for a job at the LAFD, though he's yet to land the position, the Militant learned that it's not just a job where you just get up and commute to/from the office. You live your job. Your commute is a 3-story slide down a pole. Your office is your firefighter's suit. Whether you're responding to a false alarm or battling a hellish wildfire, the Militant gives massive props to firefighters everywhere.

Fire In Thar Hills!

No posts in an entire month? Militant, what's wrong with you?!?

The Militant spent his Monday evening taking in a Dodger game at the Stadium. As any Dodger fan has known for the past 47 years, the Stadium offers breathtaking views of the San Gabriel Mountains, beyond the confines of its outfield walls. On Monday night, the Stadium also offered a vantage view of the notorious Station Fire currently engulfing the said mountain range.

Fortunately, at least for most of us city-dwellers, the winds have been blowing towards the north, keeping much of that smoke away from us. Surely the game would have been called off in the event the winds and smoke blew in a southerly direction, causing a health hazard for players and spectators alike.

Though unspoken, many a fan did turn their eyes and binoculars towards left field, where flames could be seen racing up the mountains near Sunland-Tujunga, almost resembling molten lava down a volcano as night fell. It was a bizarre event, watching both the Boys in Blue fight against the Arizona Diamondbacks below, and firefighters fight against the mountainous inferno up there.
The game itself produced three solo home runs, by new Dodger Ronald Bellisario Ronnie Belliard in the 2nd inning, and two back-to-back bombs by Manny and Matt Kemp, respectively, in the 6th. Ultimately, the Dodgers lost 3-5 in the 10th (James McDonald pitching in the 10th? Really now??).

But a the loss of a game is small potatoes compared to other kinds of loss, especially when the fires hit close to home for the Dodgers in a literal sense, at least for shortstop Rafael Furcal, who left the Colorado road trip early to evacuate his La Cañada-Flintridge home with his family from the Station Fire. He was given a break from starting the game today. Fortunately, Furcal's home, which the player described as a base's distance from the fire, was spared; the real local team heroes this week provided the relief and the save.

Dodgers to Host Red Cross Fundraiser at The Stadium

Talk about the stars aligning - the Militant's previous two post subjects find a connection! One of the Militant's Militia operatives with decidedly Blue connections forwarded this...

In light of the terrible fire tragedy that has displaced thousands of Southern California families, the Los Angeles Dodgers have partnered with KCBS2/KCAL9 to have a day-long fundraiser at Dodger Stadium tomorrow, Friday, October 26th and Monday, October 29th from 5:00AM to 11:00PM. All monies collected will go to the American Red Cross to aid in their humanitarian efforts towards this disaster.

The fundraising location will be inside of our Sunset Avenue Gate (located at Stadium Way/Elysian Park Avenue). Set-up will commence at approx 3:00AM with vehicles being allowed to line-up starting at approx 4:30AM. Prospective donors will drive up into the Stadium, make their donations and then circle back out of the property. The event will also have live television and radio remotes taking place, also from inside the property.

Finally, if anyone is interested in generously donating their time to help staff the donation booths during the day, please contact Noel E. Pallais at noelp@ladodgers.com or 323.224.1466 with your availability.

Fundraiser website: http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_297222729.html

The Militant certainly admires the organization's generosity in staging this event, but our air is already fux0red up as it is this week. Can't they set up donation booths in more pedestrian- or transit- friendly locations as well (apparently four Stater Bros. markets are also donation centers, but they're all located in the even more auto-centric boonies anyway - and isn't that the reason why people lost their homes in the first place, because of exurban sprawl)?

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

The Militant is not one who easily jumps on the bandwagon, nor follows the crowd. In fact, his very existence on the Los Angeles Blogosphere is specifically because there are perspectives, views, events, people and places that are largely ignored, if not misunderstood, so the Militant naturally goes against the grain to bring those things to you on this here blog.

The Militant didn't want to write about these fires mainly because not only do the mainstream news sources already have it covered, but the local Blogosphere seems to have it covered as well.

But when the Militant started to feel somewhat lethargic this afternoon and almost felt a shortness of breath, that's all he can stands and he can't stands no more...
...okay, other than spending the next few days in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, there's nothing more he can do, except...

BLOG!!! (cough, cough, cough)

Damn, that didn't turn out so good.

But yeah, even though the Militant isn't exactly the only blogger feeling the weird-ass effects of inhaling cremated homes, trees and dry brush from our suburbs and exurbs, perhaps ranting on a Blogger.com Create Post window can be cathartic. After all, he can't ride his bike (well, technically, the Militant still can, it's just that his lungs would protest), take long walks around the vicinity of his compound, or the like. For some reason, this was much worse than the Griffith Park Fire, which was much more closer in proximity, but the smoke and ash didn't linger for as long.

Speaking of proximity, we all know that, aside from the environmental and visual impact, us city folks are largely spared from the effects of this fire (count yer blessings). But the constant media bombardment of "CALIFORNIA FIRE!!!" (cough, cough, cough) on newscasts and headlines, would probably make people Out East think the entire Golden State - all 158, 302 square miles of it - is conflagrated (to either their delight or chagrin). Yesterday evening, the Militant got a call from his cousin in Queens, NY who was wondering if all her Los Angeles-based relatives were okay. The Militant assured her that all the fires were burning miles away in outlying areas and that the only effects were the aforementioned smoke-related ones.

Of course, the Militant wasn't immune from the hype either; a few hours earlier, after learning that SD's Jack Murph, er, Qualcomm Stadium was being used as an evacuation center, the Militant called his Daygo-based operatives, who likewise assured them that they were just fine, and in fact people who fled the fire-ravaged areas sought refuge in their part of town. After all, they had already suffered their own inferno four years ago.

This all started with some wild Santa Anas, right? As a great native Angeleno songwriter once expressed in song, the blow hot from the north. The Militant considers the winds themselves to be a stunningly beautiful thing, almost romantic even. At least to this Militant, they bring back fond memories of a time years ago in his college days when he was dating someone who went to an unspecified California State University and had to trek through the parking lot, hand in hand with her, as the winds seemingly beat the two young lovers like a raging storm while they sought refuge in her dorm.

But that was then. These days, the Santa Anas are weather pr0n that give arsonists hard-ons, and now these domestic ter'rists are public enemy #1. Can America try to allocate more money into institutionalizing and taking care of its mentally ill so they aren't out there playing with fire in dry brush, resulting in people losing their homes and lives? Oh yeah, the US government has priorities (cough, cough, cough). Uh-huh.

Some have likened the fires to be "Our Katrina." Uh, not even close. Maybe when The Big One comes. But perhaps events like these test the resilience of people - transplants and natives alike - and weed out the ones who only come here for "The Weather" (that makes about 95.3% of all East Coast and Midwestern transplants, right?) - perhaps certainly a semiarid Mediterranean climate with a relatively low annual rainfall has its downsides, after all, so run along), and make for a stronger, thicker-skinned populace.

In the meantime, GO AWAY SMOKE (cough, cough, hack, hack, cough)!!!! The Militant wants his normal smog back.

Goodness Gracious Great Broadway Fire!

Terrorism? Plane crash? Tanker truck explosion? Like many in the Southland, the Militant saw a large, dark plume of smoke, stretching for miles, emanating off the side of the Harbor Freeway on Saturday evening. While heading back to his compound from San Pedro in a carpool with his operatives, the Militant, sitting in the rear passenger seat, was able to snap these pictures of the conflagration (pictured left) from the 110..

According to news reports, an 85-year old two story industrial building caught ablaze at the corner of 57th St. and South Broadway (near Slauson Ave.) in South Los Angeles, just a block east of the 110. The cause of the fire is still not yet known. Over 100 LAFD firefighters were on the scene to fight the blaze, which emitted a huge dark grey plume of smoke spreading for several miles eastward and was visible from nearly everywhere in the Los Angeles Basin (pictured right). The number of injuries and/or casualties from the fire is not yet known.

Militant Update: Flammable materials stored too close to fluorescent lighting fixtures started the fire in a carpet and tile store. The fire caused nearly $4 million in damages. Aside from non-life-threatening injuries to the carpet store owner, no one was hurt.

Chow Meets Chow

The Militant showed his face on Tuesday night at a live meetup of foodies from the Chowhound Los Angeles Area message boards. It was the first time the Militant did one of these "meets" in a long time. The Militant is old enough to have engaged in a now-archaic form of online communication called a Bulletin Board System during his college days (think of it as a dialup local text-only version of the net...okay, you probably can't even fathom such a thing, but they existed) where they would have regular "meets" off-line where people would meet each other in person. The fact that Chowhound also employed the term "handle" instead of "username" or "screenname" was an added nostalgic bonus.

The Chowhounders met up at the chic taqueria Malo in Silver_Lake where we got to dig into the restaurant's trademark ground beef and pickle fried tacos, in addition to some other modernized Mexican fare. Pretty good (despite the consensus of the online Chowhounders), and not just because the food and drinks were on the house. The Chow.com organizers (who work for CNET) even gave away free Chowhound swag in the form of t-shirts (from that silky American Apparel stock) and some canvas bags.

But far surpassing the food was that the Militant got to meet some really cool Chowhounders there (for the sake of fairness and privacy, the Militant will not identify in this blog who he met - and he expects any other Chowhounder reading this to observe the mutual hush-hush, if you know what I'm sayin'), which was totally contrary to what he initially thought they would be, having closed down the browser window in disgust after reading one too many overtly snobbish reviews, especially from NY immigrants who somehow believe Chinese food was invented in Manhattan.

Most of the Chowhounders there appeared to be in their mid-30s and older and of upper-middle income and higher. More than half were white, with a considerable number of Asians, and a small number of Latinos. Only one person there appeared to be of African American heritage.
A couple people were retired and that being a foodie was their "hobby" while a few actually worked in the culinary/restaurant industry. Surprisingly, very few 20-somethings and and even fewer hipster-types (Oh, they're easy to spot, trust me) were there.

But overall everyone seemed to be pleased to be in each other's company. The easy icebreaker was the revelation of people's handles through nametags (i.e. "Oh, you're Chowzilla? I thought you were a dude! Nice to finally meet you!") and though most of the talk gravitated towards eateries (the event became a live, in-person iteration of the message board), people inevitably wanted to get to know about the lives of each other.

The Anonymous Militant can feel the pangs of irony when he says that the Internet really needs that frequent "personal feel" where people of like minds or at least similar interests can meet face-to-face as actual human beings. And in this era of flame.wars and the like, events where internet users can see each other as not only as real living personalities, but any sort of negative objectification on the part of certain people beforehand would likely be greatly diminished.

So will there be a Militant Angeleno meetup anytime soon?

The answer is LOL.

The Roof, The Roof, The Roof Is On Fire...
After the Militant's foodie meetup, he happened to see a towering column of thick smoke near his next destination, looming above the 10 Freeway. It was a warehouse fire on Adams and La Brea in the Mid-City area just below The 10. No homes were in danger, but no fewer than five Los Angeles Fire Department ladder companies were at the scene as Adams Blvd. was shut down at La Brea. The building on fire was a business called P.C. Sets, which according to one local, builds props and sets for film and TV studios. Another neighborhood local told the Militant that several nondescript buildings in the neighborhood without even so much as a sign outside are companies that build props or supply equipment to the studios in Hollywood, The Valley or Culver City. They are located in the Mid-City area for their lower lease rates. The cause of the fire was not yet known, but arson investigators were on the scene. No occupant was known to have been killed or injured but an LAFD firefighter who was on the roof fell through and suffered 2nd and 3rd degree burns as well as broken bones after an intense rescue operation by his fellow firefighters. He is recovering at Cedars-Sinai.

For those of you who have never witnessed a firefighting scene, the LAFD operates like clockwork and the amount of diligent and spontaneous teamwork demonstrated is something that just has to be seen to be believed.

That entire stretch of the north side of Adams Blvd. from La Brea Ave. to Redondo Ave. is slated to be redeveloped into a large retail development with a public open space element. It is part of the City of Los Angeles' Community Redevelopment Agency Mid-City Recovery Redevelopment Project.