So Long Capt. Myers**

One of the LAFD's three Public Service Officers (PSO) who sit in the bowels of City Hall East (until the new OCD is fitted out at the new FS 4) has been promoted to Captain I. The indefatigable Brian Humphrey posted the news on the LAFD blog that his colleague Ron Myers on the "A" Shift is going to see daylight again as a Captain at FS 90 out by the Van Nuys Airport.

So that leaves Brian ("B" shift) and d'Lisa Davies ("C" shift) as the permanent PSO's as they look for someone to fill the vacant spot. The LAFD is unique in that they have a permanently assigned PSO attached to the dispatch center 24-7. The LAFD staffs its dispatch center entirely with sworn personnel and they work on the same 24-hour modified Kelly platoon schedule as the field units. The dispatchers work, sleep and eat four stories underground for 24 hours at a go (there's even a cook* who makes fire station-worthy meals).

Not only do the PSOs field routine calls from the public and the media, but they maintain the LAFD blog and for the past few years have been sending out increasingly more helpful and useful incident alert email/pager notifications. Mr. Humphrey, who has basically become known throughout the country, if not the world, as the "voice of the LAFD," has been at it the longest and Ms. Davies replaced longtime PSO Jim Wells** after he retired a couple years back. It's quite a good gig they've got going and Mr. Myers was an excellent part of the team.

Code6Charles wishes him luck at 90's.

* As a commenter pointed out, the cook rotates as part of the daily dispatch crew in the same way they do at typical LAFD stations, so there's no extra personnel assigned as a so-called "permanent cook."

** Jim Wells retired as the former LAFD PSO. Jim Hill is a local, longtime sportscaster for KCBS. Total brain melt on my part.

Fire and Politics

So there was a ripping Major Emergency Structure Fire in the Jefferson Park area on Tuesday night (7/24). Cheyane Caldwell, the A/O of Truck 26 fell through the roof while doing truck work on the vacant building. Luckily, he was quickly rescued by fellow firefighters. The roof was cleared and the firefighters then went defensive.

Caldwell was initially transported to Cedars and then moved to the burn unit down in Torrance, according to a fairly comprehensive post on the LAFD Blog by Pat Marek--a new name in the spokesman world of the LAFD. (Might mean that longtime PSO Ron Meyers is retiring as d'Lisa Davies recently replaced longtime fixture Jim Wells on the "C" shift. Of course "B" Shift stalwart and star blogger Brian Humphrey ain't goin nowhere!).

Anyway, there are some really high quality pictures taken on scene of the West Adams Boulevard fire by John Conkle hosted over on the LAFD Flickr site.

So I wasn't that surprised when I checked the LAFD blog this morning to see Humphrey's open letter to the California Parole Board asking that they deny release of one Mario Catanio who set the fire that killed another Apparatus Operator who fell through the roof in during a North Hollywood blaze in 1981.

First time I've seen Humphrey (presumably with the full blessing of Department brass) take such a public stance on an issue such as this. Usually, Public Information-y things like "change the smoke alarm batteries when you change your clocks" or "Don't play with fireworks," are the message of the day on the Blog.

My brain's a little fried right now, so I don't know what the greater significance of Humphrey's post today means, if there's greater significance at all. Clearly, the close call experienced by A/O Caldwell two days ago brought the issue to the fore today.

LAFD Experiment

A few words on the incident page system being tested by the LAFD. They recently beta'd an alert notification system not unlike incidentpage.net. It was pretty good, though if Brian Humphrey is reading this, I'd suggest adding a first-in fire station district to each incident page, so those who are conversant in station locations could instantly know what part of the city the call was going down (to their credit, they already include Thomas Guide pages, but that's a pain in the ass for most of us to rely on).

They took the system offline a few days ago, but I hope it comes back soon..it's a great step in the technology direction for the LAFD.

Running At Half-Speed

That seems to be the case over at the LAFD blog where Brian Humphrey & Co. have resumed sporadic posting, with incidents generally a few weeks behind. Here's hoping that they catch up soon and are back at full-speed ahead.

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Also, my fish-out-of-water sighting today came as I strolled down South Beverly Drive in the B.H. and I saw Light Force 102 moseying south gawking at the hotties on the sidewalk and the Ferraris parked at the meters. Based in the Valley's non-descript South Van Nuys area, 102's rarely makes an over-the-hill appearance. No idea what they were doing down here unless they were moving up C-A-V (Conditionally Available) to cover a nearby Task Force house like 58's or 92's while those companies were out on a drill or something.


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Saw BHFD Engine 2 and one of the Freightliner Rescues working hard today on North Beverly Drive. Parked in the red zone, per usual, while the boys sipped on their $4 Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf drinks. That's a tradition almost as old as I am. What was unusual were the two muscle-T-shirt clad dudes in jungle fatigue pants and black shirts with a stealth BHPD patch on the sleeves. Bright gold badges and 9 mm sidearms on the hips. A little over-the-top per usual for the Beverly Hills public safety. Probably SWAT guys. Enjoying their coffee on the public dime.

Short and Bittersweet

That's the gist of the message the LAFD's Brian Humphrey posted on the LAFD blog earlier today. "Staffing issues" are cited as the reason for the blog's indefinite hiatus.

Humphrey alluded to staffing changes in a mass email he sent to LAFD email recipients earlier this week. Times could be a'changing down in the bowels of LAFD's OCD section. Maybe they're re-evaluating the role of the 24/7 Public Service Officer who takes up a chair (and bed and meal) down in Dispatch, hundreds of feet below City Hall East.

We'll see how this all pans out, but I hope it doesn't spell the death of the excellent blog Humphrey et. al. have put up for the last year or two.

LAFD Blogspot Getting Warmer

The other day, Blogmaster extraordinaire Brian Humphrey wrote a log-form entry on the LAFD blog detailing the busy Sunday handled by the department's Air Operations crews.

It was a good blow-by-blow rarely seen by Humphrey or his fellow bloggers Ron Meyers and Brian Ballton. It's good for the public, but the scannerheads would love to see more dorky detail. Brian has opined in the past that budget restrictions keep him from expanding the blog into more wonkish territory that would include streaming radio audio and/or CAD/dispatch screen capabilities. All that's understood, and I feel that he should campaign for donations to get that stuff up and running.

But Brian et. al could easily add unit numbers and other minutiae to their posts to satisfy the geeks who read the site. First-in companies and Fire Station districts are listed on the attached PDF files that the PSOs include in the emailed incident summaries, but seeing more detail on the blog entries, including lists of equipment that handled units, etc., would be a great first step.