California: Los Angeles Firefighters Lose Critical Tool to Battle Rise in Homeless Fires – IOTW Report

California: Los Angeles Firefighters Lose Critical Tool to Battle Rise in Homeless Fires

NBC4:

“Where is the protection? If the homeless starting a fire is not a threat, maybe they should start a fire behind your house and see how much of a threat that is to you.”

In response to the NBC4 I-Team story below, Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Office said the mayor has directed the fire department to begin inspecting fire hydrants across the city and power lines in high-density homeless encampments to better ensure lawful use.

The fire department will also develop an online reporting system to coordinate with the DWP in real time.

“Encampment fires underscore the absolute urgency of accelerating our work to confront the homelessness crisis through increased outreach and public safety measures,” according to a statement from the mayor’s spokesman. more here


16 Comments on California: Los Angeles Firefighters Lose Critical Tool to Battle Rise in Homeless Fires

  1. Reminds me of when the ‘teenagers’ in the Projects I grew up in the Bronx opened the fire hydrants for hot afternoon of summer FUN.

    After getting drenched, We would take our popsicle sticks and break them off into pieces, carve the ends into bows and stearns, and put them into the high point in the street, place them at the curbside gutter rushing with water and let them go and watch and run along before they went down the drain. This was the very early 70’s.

    Then we started over. Great times but later realized that by doing that reduced the supply and pressure on the overall system.

    The ‘johhny pump’ or fire hydrant larger opening where the water comes out, there would be a can without either end, put over the top and at the correct angle the water could FLUME to across the other side of the street.

    https://classroom.synonym.com/why-is-a-fire-hydrant-called-a-johnny-pump-12081348.html

    7
  2. The law of unintended consequences – – Never thot of that uh Buckwheat?
    Ummmm… yeah, that’s whut the umbrella of vagrancy laws covered…
    only you Asswipe Know-It-All Social Justice Warriors just didn’t know it!…
    or just don’t care!!

    5
  3. Don’t remember Dr. Drew mentioning this problem on top of his warnings about the PLAGUE.

    So living out in the “Boonies” we don’t have the fire hydrants. “Back in the day” it was all volunteer fire fighters also. If you moved into the area and were on the department in the bigger city that you moved from there would be a welcoming committee that did their damnest to recruit you to their department and all things considered we had very good protection. Then too, maybe people had more sense back then.

    They have to have the tankers and pumpers to handle this and will just have to go back to setting up like they do in the “country.” They set up what is like a large swimming pool and the tank trucks run back and forth filling it with the pumpers pumping from this source. Live on a river and again (back in the day) you knew when they had a bad one as they’d be pulling from the river in my subdivision. At least now they have the water systems to supply them when it’s out where there’s no fire hydrants.

    4
  4. …another risk when dealing with squatter populations is that no one has any idea how many are in any given improvised structure, abandoned building, or curtained vehicle. No one knows names in many cases, who’s “home”, or has any organizational sense to gather denizens in a given place for a head count.

    …this means firefighters must put extra effort and risk into searching and re-searching hapazardly engineered enclosures, piles of clothing studded with needles and sometimes underlaid with feces, jerry-rigged, easily collapsable beds, in ditches, under bridges, sometimes shot through with glass jars full of gasoline, hellishly long extension cords from nearby buildings, propane tanks employed as meth cookers, etc., etc., usw., all of which jacks up the danger and can delay the actual fire supression, depending on available manpower.

    …it’s also kind of a given that you’re going to be a)carrying water one way or another, be it by tanker relay or even Indian pumps, and b)you will have a MASSIVE crowd control problem. They’re not the most stable folks in the world, so it’s not hard for them to imagine you mean them harm; and also, while YOU may not be impressed with their stuff, it’s all THEY got, so they’re likely to try to rush past YOU to save it, if they don’t think you’re getting it done fast enough.

    …my first fire wasn’t a homeless situation, but it’s the sort of thing that comes up in them. There was a woman who wanted to set up a romantic evening for her man in the bedroom of the multi-family dwelling they lived in one corner of. To that end, she set up candles. Lots and lots of candles. It evidently worked, because one thing led to another, people started disrobing, then candles got knocked over…

    …which brings us to why I know about it. After an initial hone-made suppression effort involving a half-naked woman screaming like a ruptred duck, SNS was invited to his inaugural fire run along with the rest of his fire company. I actually got there in the second wave (don’t put the green guys on the frontline hose company), so it was a more mature scene at the time came on it. She was over by the command vehicle, more or less subdued, with a blanket covering her, eh, features. (Boyfriend was long gone, if you’re wondering, some folks are allergic to flashing lights for some reason).

    Suddenly, she stands up, screams “MY BABIES!!!”, throws off her blaket, and charges pell-mell towards her personal inferno.

    …one of the OTHER guys grabbed her from behind in the most embarassing way possible with a half-naked woman, saving her from her own stupidity, and starts an intense interrogation. Her kids were actually at a neighbors, but she somehow thought they weren’t, so a scary time and intense search of a burning building ensued from a drunken brain fart.

    …the point is that a LOT of folks in a homeless camp may have similar concerns, and some of the children may not even be real. Concentrating packs of unstable folks in uncertain environments is fraught with dangers, and not just for the homeless themselves.

    Democrats do them NO favors by lettimg them run wild.

    Or anyone else.

    11
  5. China is building islands in the South China Sea. When they’re done maybe we should hire China to make a yuge island for us so we’d have a place to put our worthless free range bums. Name it after Obama.

    5
  6. 🔴 COMEDY OF ERRORS! 🔴

    They raise taxes to pay for illegals in exchange for votes, rent goes up, people live on the streets, now there is a feces and fire epidemic, and less money to solve it.

    Now there is no reversing it. It’s a death spiral, as the illegals will never leave, and welfare will never be shut off.

    It’s now in the state of collapse. Chaos and anarchy only gets worse. Never invite a virus in, as it’s impossible to find a cure.

    6
  7. In L.A. instead of driving vulnerable humans away, the concerned people should organize and invest their money in providing organized areas to help the homeless have sanitary, safe spaces to live. Clean water, power sources, and plumbed sanitation facilities are needed for healthier environments. L.A. is a very large urban area, but still a community of inter-connected residences affecting, or infecting, one another. A very Communist governor and legislature have decreed that border-crossing illegals will get everything given to them, while bringing in crime and diseases with them. But real down-and-out citizens get nothing,

    No Walk in the Garden for the Urban Homeless
    Throughout Los Angeles, landscaping is put to aggressive use, functioning as a weapon of anti-homelessness under the guise of beautification.
    https://www.laprogressive.com/urban-homeless/

    Again Pioneers (November 2, 1950)
    A [poor] migrant family of pea pickers tries to begin life anew in friendly small town Fairview, but the town folk are determined to get rid of them.
    https://free-classic-movies.com/movies-05a/05a-1950-11-02-Again-Pioneers/index.php

  8. Ruth, that SO wont work. If they were sane folk, it could. But that is not what you have there; or most anywhere else, either. The pessimistic comments about eventual chaos/breakdown come from our readers experience. Many here on this site are of the older persuasion, and actually know things.

    5
  9. tRuth JULY 28, 2019 AT 11:55 PM
    “In L.A. instead of driving vulnerable humans away, the concerned people should organize and invest their money in providing organized areas to help the homeless have sanitary, safe spaces to live.”

    …we HAD such places once.

    They were called “Asylums”.

    Liberals wrecked that, just like they wreck everything else, and for the same reason.

    They needed the votes…

    8
  10. Christians pray for answers and by faith expect guidance. Just because one does not want answers, does not mean there are none. “In L.A. instead of driving vulnerable humans away, the concerned people should organize and invest their money in providing organized areas to help the homeless have sanitary, safe spaces to live.” Apparently guidance happened in San Diego because caring community members were looking for answers. Where is your faith?

    Community organized caring, investing in helping those who are much less fortunate than others. Just look at the many businesses that have invested in caring vs. driving away to misery.

    “Campsites in San Diego are providing shelter to hundreds of people and their families in a difficult spot. The Alpha Project manages campsites that currently house 200 of San Diego’s homeless, and nearly a quarter of their residents are children. Special correspondent Susan Murphy reports on the challenges – and camaraderie – shared by families who call the camps home.”
    PBS NewsHour
    Published on Nov 23, 2017
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_NVCuvyUro

    “Alpha Project’s mission is to empower individuals, families, and communities by providing work, recovery, housing and support services to people who are motivated to change their lives and achieve self-sufficiency. With a tax deductible donation, you may choose which program you would like to contribute to. Each and every program we offer provides hope, opportunities, and new beginnings to those that are less fortunate.”
    https://www.alphaproject.org/

Comments are closed.