Auxiliary members present a check at Fire Station 69 (left to right) Arlene Vaillancourt; Gina Jakel, Eva Kurtz, Linda Andrews, Mary Jo Stirling, Terri Webb and Stephanie Hubsch with local firefighters.
Annually since 2021, Ronald Reagan Post 283 Auxiliary members have given gift cards to local Fire Station 23 and 69 to cover Thanksgiving expenses. Many residents may not realize that firefighters have to pay for their own meals while on duty at their station. Generally, firefighters take turns shopping and cooking.
This year was no different. Auxiliary president Ruth Kahn said, “We will present gift cards for Palisades Garden Café to both fire stations (three $250 gift cards, one for each shift at Station 69 and one $500 gift card for Station 23).”
Although gift cards have been given to grocery stores the past four years, this year gift cards were given to the Garden Café. “We wanted to help a local restaurant as well as firefighters,” Kahn said.
On November 21, members of the auxiliary visited Stations 23 and 69.
Station 69 Fire Captain Thomas Kitahata was appreciative and told CTN. “They have given us gift cards for Ralphs before. This year they gave all three shifts a very generous gift card for Mr. Kwon’s Palisades Garden Cafe. Which happens to be great. Sometimes we are not able to get away to go shopping.” The only grocery store in Pacific Palisades is Von’s at Sunset and PCH, and 69 often travels to Santa Monica or Brentwood to grocery shop for supplies.
Last year, members of the auxiliary, who lived in the Palisades Highlands were particularly appreciative of the rapid response to a November 13 brush fire. CTN reported then that it took about an hour for more than “60 firefighters to stop forward progress. The precisely targeted, rapid water drops from LAFD Air Operations combined with the firefighter’s aggressive fire attack on the ground held the fire to approximately one acre (revised from initial size).”
One auxiliary member asked the firefighter if water had been used from the reservoir, and he explained that LAFD and County don’t do “bucket dips,” which is a federal operation. Instead, they set up a pad near the reservoir and there is a hydrant at the site. Helicopters land on the pad and it takes about two minutes to fill them up. (CTN wrote DWP at the end of November to ask if that hydrant is filled from the reservoir, which was empty.)
Although some in Pacific Palisades are angry with firefighters over the loss of property from the January 7 Palisades Fires, other residents explain that they feel that local firefighters did everything they could, but that they had no control over where they were directed (or not directed) by officials in charge. With the electricity not turned off, it also made navigating streets difficult for firefighters because of downed power lines.
Most recently it has come out that local firefighters did not believe that the Lachman January 1 fire was out but were told by the State/high authorities that they were to roll up their hoses and leave the site. The Palisades Fire was a result of a hold-over fire from that January 1 fire.
Last week, LA Superior Court Judge Samantha P. Jessner directed that the depositions of 12 LA firefighters and 5 California State Parks employees be conducted, and that documents related to their involvement in the January 1 ‘Lachman’ fire be turned-over.
“What I’m trying to achieve is some limited discovery that is meant to preserve some of the recollections…of the people who responded to the Lachman fire,” Judge Jessner said in a news story. Attorneys will take depositions in December.
Members of the Legion Auxiliary (left to right) Arlene Vaillancourt, Eva Kurtz, Linda Andrews, Gina Jakel, Mary Jo Stirling, Terri Webb and Fran Aponte with firefighters from Station 23
Private citizens and private contractors were all over the Palisades fighting the fires January 7. The LAFD was not there. They were on the beach, or by Paul Revere sipping coffee, joking amongst themselves and taking selfies. I know, because I was one of the people begging them to come help us fight the fires. Indeed these non responders didn’t even have the basic decency to tell us that they had abandoned us so we could empty our homes. They DO NOT deserve food, charity or thanks. One of my friends daughters was bringing food to the West Hollywood fire station on January 8 and 9. On the 9th, when she saw they hadn’t left the station, she asked them why they weren’t gone to fight the fires. “Oh, we’re not needed there” one of them told her, his mouth full of her food. She did not come back. I suggested that maybe we should raid the station and take their kitchenware, food, and furniture to replace some of the things my family lost. She readily agreed.
How many of these firefighters make well over 100K a year?
And apparently it’s a hardship for them to pay for and make their own meals?
Wouldn’t they be doing exactly that if they weren’t firefighters?
Finn-Olaf Jones is exactly right. They DO NOT deserve food, charity or thanks.