October 2009

Salinas firefighters extinguished a blaze that burned most of the front porch and attic of a south Salinas home around 3:45 p.m. Tuesday on the 400 block of Church Street. Officials said an occupant of the house was sm oking a cigarette on the porch. After she put out the cigarette, officials said, the wind [...]

Los Angeles’ oldest operating fire station is outmoded for today’s equipment and needs, officials say. Its fans seek to rescue the classy, Depression-era building. Station 39 is cramped and outdated. It’s a tight squeeze getting the trucks in, and there’s not enough room for the larger rescue ambulances that have become standard over the decades. [...]

In the next month, the wrecked economy will deliver an important public safety benefit: Las Vegas Valley firefighters will get a chance to train for one of the city’s worst nightmares, a high-rise hotel fire. And they’ll do in it in a real but unfinished high rise, the stalled Fontainebleau. Most years, the valley’s four [...]