Day 18, March 30, 2009

I purposely slept in a little later this morning as I didn’t want to be driving into the sun on Highway 152 early in the morning. I left the motel around 0800 hours. It was about 20 miles down to Gilbert before I turned off east on Highway 152 towards I-5. I took a bunch of photos of the picturesque San Luis Recreational area as I drove by. It took me an hour to get to I-5.

The drive down I-5 was rather boring as there are no cities or towns along the entire route, until you get to the Grapevine and go over the mountains (4200 feet high). All you see is flat farmland to the east and hills to the west. Then you see the ominous site of the mountains that you must wind up through to get down into the LA basin on the other side.

I had hoped to be in the LA area by 1300 hours, but long construction delays near Magic Mountain delayed things quite a bit. When I finally got through the delays, I got on the 210 freeway and got off near LA City Station 77 and drove down into the Burbank area to hit some stations. My first stop was Burbank Station 13, where they had three brand new Seagrave Maurauder pumpers to be assigned to Engines 11, 13 and 15. They are all red- no white tops, as they had been running. I couldn’t find a Seagrave plate on any of the new rigs.

I ran into a very sharp firefighter who answered all my questions (and more) about Burbank’s operations. Burbank has six stations with six engines, two trucks and three medic rigs. A full assignment gets three engines, two trucks and a battalion chief. I got photos of Engine 13 and Medic 13 when they left the station. Burbank Airport has it’s own department, but Burbank responds on medicals (with an engine and medic) to the field. On most days the engines that do not have medics at the station have at least one paramedic on the engine company.

I stopped at BFD Station 14 and it was empty. I stopped at BFD Station 12, just as Ladder 12 was taking off for a drill (or something non-emergency). I caught Engine 12 and got a fair shot of it just as they left quarters (non-emegency). I drove by Station 15, which was also vacant. I thought I might catch some rigs of the Burbank rigs at headquarters (Station 11), but it too was vacant. I wished I’d asked the guys at Station 13 if there was any training going on anywhere in Burbank. Oh well.

I stopped at Glendale Station 27. They were using a reserve Pierce Arrow, which they pulled out so I could get photos. As I was near I-5, I got on it and headed towards Pasadena Station 33 (training). Ladder 32 was just pulling in the back lot to gas up, but he gate closed before I could get out of the car.. There were no rigs out training at the station. Dang, that’s unusual.

I drove by Station 32 as I headed towards Arcadia, but the engine was out too. As it was nearing the rush hour, I got on the 210 again and headed for Arcadia. Traffic was terrible, stop and start, stop and start moving again. How these people can put up with this everyday I’ll never know. I’d live close to work if I lived here. Very close!

I finally made it to the Extended Stay in Arcadia and checked in around 1600 hours. I went to a nearby Ralph’s supermarket and picked up some food and beverages for my weeks stay here. The fire radio traffic has been very busy here since I arrived in the area. There was an incident that sounded like a mountain rescue involving LA County Bn 4, other companies and a helicopter), a few major accidents, a number of full-response incidents, but no fires to report so far.

On the local news at 1700 hours, they showed a bunch of LA City FD companies on standby down in the San Pedro area for a police standoff with armed suspects. From the helicopter shot, it looked like Light Force 48, Squad 48, two Rescue Ambulances and a Battalion Chief parked a block away from the incident on standby (probably in case they used teargas). There’s never a dull minute in this area. There’s always something going on here and its usually being broadcast live on TV here.

I noticed Minneapolis had a 3-3 at 5000 Russell Avenue (South?) today. Santa Clara County had a 2nd alarm after I left there this morning and also had an earthquake of magnitude 4.6 about 2 hours after I left town. Thank you for waiting until after I left the area. I also noticed that Minnetonka had a working fire on Cedar Lake Road with a fair amount of mutual aid today.