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The Wreckoning Is Coming at You: Inside the Trainwreck Studio
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Simply Wrong Food: IHOP's Holiday Pancakes
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Alice Cooper, Ace Frehley @ Nokia Theater 10/28/09
There was a fire of some kind, Wednesday night at LAX. It wasn't reported anywhere, but we know, because we were caught flat-footed in the smoke, amid the cop cars, on our way home from band practice, at about 10:45 PM. Soon as we hit the Sepulveda tunnel (southbound) we knew something was wrong; lanes were blocked off and the traffic was completely stopped. So we dodged onto Century (westbound), figuring that would be an easy escape. It wasn't.
The curving onramp to Century took us momentarily past a scene of chaos just within the boundary of LAX. White smoke was billowing around a large knot of cop cars parked to face oncoming traffic on Terminal Way. There was gridlock on Century all the way to the 405 as people were apparently trying to escape...something.
Yes, something. SOMETHING happened at LAX last night. Was it a fire? An attack? Chemical? Biological? We called our ex who works at Terminal One, but she was either working or sleeping. We called KFWB, to see if the newsroom knew anything. "Let me check the wires," said the guy who answered the phone. Nothing yet, he informed us, and gave us his thanks. We wondered what sort of news organization this was, exactly. The whole way back to Highland Park, we listened to hear something about what was happening at the airport -- but nothing on the radio. Nothing on the news wire. Nothing but a deafening silence.
Now...now we're worried...
See, a man runs up an escalator the wrong way at an airport, and it's national news. Last week, we'll admit, we packed the wrong bag by accident on a flight out of Burbank, and found ourselves facing a very upset TSA agent holding a six inch hunting knife we had completely forgotten was in our overnight bag. (Seriously. It had been in the side pocket for years; we just hadn't thought to check before going to the airport.) The agent informed us that he could put us in jail immediately, depending on his mood; then that he was in a good mood; lastly that he was taking the knife, after we informed him that it hadn't the sentimental value to do hard time over.
The point is, billowing smoke at an airport is a very, very big deal in this country, at this moment, and to our paranoid mind, its not being reported implies a coverup, which implies that it's an even bigger deal. So get us some antibiotics; get us some Whiskey. We're headed for the long hurt. Stuck in traffic, trying to clear the smell of burning metal that was emanating from the airport behind us, we reflected on our conditioning. Terrorism was the first thought; government conspiracy a close second. Who owned our Mind? What propaganda would we cleave toward in a time of emergency? The strongest smell between the cars shimmering in gridlock on Century Blvd. was the smell of silent, enclosed Fear, the terrible sense that one is an ant and knows nothing about what's going on around him, about what's blowing through those vents, what's creeping through the crack in the window. Kept in the dark about what's in the dark; a dark age captured in a moment of orderly mass flight from the scene of no-one-knows-what. No one will ever know, now. Just a pale of white smoke and the Law keeping watch, on the far side of our understanding.
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Josh:
Let me assure you there was no interest in covering up any of our doings at LAX, a location we respond to as many as two-dozen times a day. Think of it as a mid-size city with a population of a quarter-million or more 'daily residents' who have all or more of the many maladies or frailties of their non-traveling counterparts.
Wednesday was a busy day for us at LAX (proper) and in the communities that surround the airport, with 21 responses for what we would consider 'routine' emergencies.
While I'm not *exactly* sure what you're speaking of, here is our roster of LAX responses for the evening of June 28, 2006:
9:03 PM Unconscious person in the first class cabin of Delta flight 376 at Gate 50-B.
9:09 PM Persons trapped in an inoperative elevator at the Baggage Claim area of Terminal 5.
9:21 PM 25 year-old female injured aboard Singapore Airlines flight 30 at Gate 102 of TBIT.
9:55 PM Unk Type Request for Fire Department assistance at Terminal 6 cancelled by caller.
10:06 PM Smoke Detector activation at the lower level of 100 World Way.
10:18 PM 19 year-old male injured at the EVA Air building at 6851 West Imperial Highway.
11:20 PM Smoke Detector activation at Terminal 7.
11:51 PM person injured in a fall at the south side ticketing/security screening area of TBIT.
...and just after midnight:
12:03 AM apparent overdose by 24 year-old female at Terminal 4, Gate 42-B.
There were of course, many others prior to and following the events listed above, but these are the only incidents to which Firefighters and Paramedics were dispatched to LAX. As there were many concurrent small incidents, such as the early part of the 9:00 PM hour, it may have mistakenly seemed that the cascading response to individual needs was a "massive response" to some type of major incident.
As these were routine incidents that did not threaten other travelers or residents/workers in the area, they did not escalate to the level of common mention on local mainstream media (or for that matter, on the LAFD blog). With a one-person office and nearly 2,000 Fire Department responses a day, there is no way for us to publish all the details of every incident.
Josh, I hope this information helps.
Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,
Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
Josh:
A more comprehensive search of our 9-1-1 log in airport adjacent neighborhoods indicates a *reported* shooting on Wednesday evening June 28 at 10:28 PM in the 5400 block of 99th Place.
LAFD Paramedics evaluated a 24-year-old female who sustained an unspecified and non-life threatening injury. She declined transportation, stating instead she would seek her own treatment and left the scene by private auto.
As to what Law Enforcement agencies may have been doing at that time in relation to this or other incidents, I'll have to politely refer you to those agencies.
Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,
Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
Wow. Thank you for the detailed response, Brian. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I read this.
I've got to take responsibility, and eat some crow I suppose, for being so paranoid. I never wanted to fall into what I always considered the dumb-civilian trap of having my nerves jangled by every little thing. I hope you'll understand that in a broader sense, the things I write and the fears I vent are intended to be a comment on the uneasiness, this kind of just-add-water sense of panic that's pervading and seeping through our society. I sincerely and in no way meant to impugn firefighters or police officers.
I think a driving force behind public paranoia -- I can certainly speak for my own rampant paranoia here, if no one else's -- is that it's hard to get a complete and objective sense of anything that transpires these days, even if it *is* covered by the press. That's what was so fantastic to me about reading your response; the reminder that this information is *available*.
I can't imagine but that the public skittishness generated by politicians and the media must wreak havoc with you guys and girls trying to do your jobs, and I suppose things like my article play into that, for which I sincerely apologize. Still it's hard to escape this feeling that we in the public are kind of like canaries in a mine; I am sometimes a canary with an overly large beak. Again, thank you for taking the time to clarify.
Best,
Josh