Day 19, March 31. 2009

I did not have an enjoyable night at the Extended Stay last night. The first problem was when I thought the ceiling was coming down from above. There must have been a gymnastics team in the room above me doing floor exercises. When I went to complain, the guy in the room next to me was requesting a new room. The traffic noise overnight in my room was terrible. It doesn’t usually bother me, but last night was real bad.

My plan for the day was to hit a number of new LA City fire stations that had been built since my last visit two years ago. When I got ready to hit the streets, I stopped by the front desk to see if it would be possible to change rooms. They had another room that would be available in about a half hour I was told. I started packing up all my crap, got the luggage-moving cart, and loaded up so that I’d be ready for the move. About a half hour later I got a call saying the room was ready. It took me a couple trips to move everything, but I’m glad I did it. I’m now in an end room on the opposite side of the building from the 210 freeway. Mucho bettero!

I finally hit the streets around 0930 hours. I got on the 210 headed for San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. I decided to stop by Pasadena Station 33, just a block off the 210 to see if anything was going on. I found Pasadena Truck 31, Engine 36, their Reserve Truck (the 1999 KME) and San Marino’s Engine 91 at training. I got a few pics, some with not so good lighting.

I got back on the 210, switched to the 134 and then got on the 101 which took me within a few blocks of new LA City Station 78 (no one home). I got s station photo. I drove by Station 39 on the way up to new Station 81. Engine 88 was in Station 39 alone and not a good photo. New LA City Station 81 is a huge new fire station and training center. It probably takes up at least three blocks. Firefighters on Engine 81 were switching hose on their rig. They were very nice and backed the rig up into the sun for photos. They also pulled out the Rehab rig for photos.

Besides the huge classroom building (there were 41 firefighters that were going to graduate next week), there is a large training tower and a huge building for storing the training apparatus assigned there (seven engines and four trucks). The firefighters from Engine 81 told me I could walk around the yard and take photos. All of a sudden, here comes a firefighter riding up on a bicycle asking me what I was doing. I explained to him and then he introduced himself and told me they had seen me from the training classroom and didn’t know the firefighters had let me roam around. The complex is so big, that the instructors sometimes use bikes to get around.

As I was leaving, they told me that Truck 90 (at Van Nuys Airport) had a brand new ladder truck. As they were the next station west, I decided to stop by. Nobody was home, but the station was wide open. I couldn’t find anybody and took off for new Station 84 way out the 101 in Woodland Hills. I jumped on the 405 heading south and headed west on the 101. I found Station 84 after first turning on the wrong Burbank Boulevard. I just got a station photo as the entire ramp of the station was in the shade and there was no play to park nearby.

I headed back east on the 101 and then took the 405 south to hit three new stations on LA’s west side. I stopped at new Station 67, just south of the Marina Del Rey area. It was built to protect a huge new development of five story apartments and condos that have been erected in the last five or six years. The area was previously swampland I was told. A very nice firefighter at 67’s pulled the engine out for photos. They were just going to leave in a few minutes he said.

I headed to new Station 62 on Venice Boulevard. The driver told me that heir new Seagrave engine was a lemon. He mentioned numerous problems with the rig. He pulled it out for photos. Every one of these new stations is “L”-shaped. Besides having at least three bays on the front side, there are also at least three or more bays for reserve apparatus coming out the side of the station.

I headed to nearby Station 43 and ran into Engine 43 out inspecting. I tried pulling over to get a photo, but they left just as I was getting out of the car. I tried finding them again after I went around the block, but lost them. I went by their station and got a shot of it. I jumped on the I-10 freeway and got off near new Station 13. It was a very hard station to get a photo of as its on a very busy street that is just crammed with pedestrians. In many of the cases with these new stations, it is really hard to get back far enough to get the entire station (and both sides in). I did my best.

As it was almost 1500 hours, I decided to head back to Arcadia before the rush hour started. I made good time up the 2 Freeway to the 134 on the way back. When the 134 turned into the 210, things got a lot slower and as I passed through Pasadena. It got very slow before I got off in Arcadia. It took me nearly an hour to get back from just west of downtown LA. It was a gorgeous day here today, about 72 and sunny. Tomorrow I hope to hit some more new LA City stations.

While I didn’t hear any good working fires today, there were a number of incidents that sounded good, but ended up being something like food on the stove. LA County Bn 16 had an incident that ran a long time (changes of quarters were made), but I don’t think it amounted to much. There was a jumper situation over I-5 this afternoon that got a good response from LA City. They got the guy before he jumped, but they did have to shut down the freeway for a short time. Then LA City had a major accident over the side of the 101 freeway, which got a huge response of companies.

When I listed the LA City apparatus photo information tonight, I realized that the LA City roster I got from the shops is missing a bunch of apparatus. I’ll have to give them a call and see if I can get a more complete roster from them.