Showing posts with label Local Fires with suspicous origins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Local Fires with suspicous origins. Show all posts

July 5, 2013

Lakewood, CA Fireworks Report July 2013


It has been 7 years since the explosion on Dunrobin and apparently memories have faded for all the good reasons to sell fireworks in Lakewood (and all the neighboring co-conspiring cities):

1. To piss off all the people in Long Beach that thought they were safe from Lakewood's mania..

2. To ensure that slave labor children in India and China continue to be gainfully employed with full OSHA safety regulations protecting them..

3. To make sure safety is job 1

4. Fireworks never start fires in developed areas!....

5. To ensure that LA Sheriff's dept. employees get enough overtime to get that new boat..

6. To make sure our pets are patriotic as well.

Long ago we said that if "civic" clubs in Lakewood really wanted to raise some cash (for uniforms!?) they would sell pot. Quite frankly that is much less offensive, toxic and dangerous than fireworks. How many people a year are injured by Pot? (this is not an endorsement of Pot use by the way; we are just making a point). Lakewood might go for that as after all its for a good cause. What you're selling is really not that important if its for a good cause, right?

Seriously folks we would like to know what is spent on "special" fireworks enforcement and advertising each year versus the net profits the "civic" clubs make on these fireworks sales. I suspect they are close. So the city should just give the money to the clubs and call its a wash.

Patriotism is not found in Chinese fireworks. Sorry. We had to laugh at a neighbor down the street who (unwittingly) flies a faded flag night a day that is shredded to pieces. Is he patriotic? Veterans and Boy Scouts would say no. But by God he was out there supporting the troops with Chinese fireworks! Amazing. You want to be be patriotic Lakewood residents? There are about 42,000 of you registered to vote in the city and about 3,500 you vote for city council every 4 years (if we even have an election). That is sickening and pathetic. How about starting there. I am going to guess that very few lighting the fireworks in Lakewood voted in the last City Council election.

We can wait until the environmental agencies catch up and overtake the fireworks lobby which has lots of friends in Sacramento. After all who could be against the "essence of Patriotism". Didn't George Washington support fireworks? Let me check Fox News on that... Its like speaking out against NSA "wholesale spying" which keeps you "safe"! So America (Lakewood) light your fireworks and turn on your phone's tracking. Be a proud American. Lets not call them fireworks. Lets call them PatriotBombs! (oh on second thought maybe not...) lol...

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™ click here to receive LAAG posts by email

November 18, 2008

Burning through the budget

What is nice about having a catalog of articles that cover a limited range of topics is that you start to see some trends. The first trend is that most people have very short memories and second that politicians NEVER learn from their mistakes or take advantage of "institutional memory". Here is an article from July 2007 that warns of the problems with fire costs and the phony "made for TV" air water drops. Yet we plow ahead with runaway fire costs. True we need to save homes when we can (those that are truly defensible) but when it comes to fires that do not threaten homes we need to cut way back on costs given our current budget tsunami.

editorial
Burning through money
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says Californians shouldn't worry about firefighting costs, but the state's fiscal situation indicates that we should.
November 18, 2008

As fires continued to engulf homes and threaten more Los Angeles and Orange County neighborhoods over the weekend, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Californians shouldn't worry, for now, about the $11 billion that the state has to find in taxes or program cuts in the current fiscal year. Despite the almost incomprehensible budget problem, he said, California won't have to skimp on fighting fires because of a $1.7-billion reserve built into the budget for exactly this kind of emergency. That's enough to keep the water-dropping aircraft flying and the firefighters on the front lines fully equipped.

The "extra" cushion of $1.7 billion is reassuring, but only up to a point. That fund is needed for all kinds of contingencies, and as this year's fires burn through acreage, they are burning almost as quickly through the fund. State fire suppression costs since July 1 already reached $304 million by the end of September, well before the most recent and destructive Sylmar, Freeway Complex and Montecito fires. Compare that with the $206-million cost for the entire year of 2006-07.

Schwarzenegger built this year's reserve on cuts from the general fund. Each of those cuts hurt, depriving seniors, for example, of their full share of renters' assistance and keeping counties from being able to test water quality at beaches. The state now faces deeper and more fundamental cuts. They can be avoided only by raising taxes -- or by leaving the state unprepared for an earthquake, terrorist attack or more fires. The fast-moving blazes that began during the weekend and are still burning should remind lawmakers, now meeting in special session, that they can not simply shrug their shoulders and hope that things work themselves out. Disaster won't wait for the state's fiscal situation to improve.

Deadlock on the budget last year helped divert attention from a Schwarzenegger proposal to fund emergency response with assessments on homeowners through their insurance policies. The plan needed some work, and the governor and some lawmakers were giving it their attention. But with the time-frittering nonnegotiations about whether to tax or cut, the work didn't get done.

California will have more fires. Development continues in fire-prone wilderness areas, and prolonged drought keeps much of the state tinder dry. There have been on average just under 6,000 fires each year in areas served by Cal Fire, the state firefighting agency, but this year there already have been 9,600. The state has to respond with better fire codes and a just way to spread the financial costs. But more than anything, it needs to get its fiscal house in order.

Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

click here to receive LAAG posts by email

November 16, 2008

Celerate the wildfires with fireworks!

So let's imagine the marketing discussion at the Chinese fireworks makers US distributors: "You know we can just sell fireworks on 4th of July. We need to make more money. Our Chinese suppliers can make an unlimited amount of fireworks and want us to sell more. We need to shoot off fireworks on every holiday! In fact we should consider shooting off fireworks to celebrate the Santa Ana wind season and opening of high fire season...you know they are so safe we can shoot them off under any conditions.." The the marketing manager gave the guy that came up with that idea a big bonus. Oh and dont forget to issue a phony sentiment in a press release that "our prayers go out to the firestorm victims"

Oh you think we are joking? When you visit TNT's website these are the holidays that they "suggest" using fireworks to "celebrate":

* » April Fools' Day
* » Arbor Day (plant a tree then burn it down with fireworks)
* » Chinese New Year
* » Christmas
* » Cinco de Mayo
* » Columbus Day
* » Easter
* » Father's Day
* » Grandparent's Day
* » Groundhog Day
* » Halloween
* » Independence Day
* » Kwanzaa
* » Labor Day
* » Mardi Gras
* » Memorial Day
* » Mother's Day
* » New Year's Eve
* » Rosh Hashanah
* » Saint Patrick's Day
* » Spring
* » Summer Solstice
* » Thanksgiving Day
* » Valentine's Day
* » Veteran's Day

Fireworks during a fire? A Glendale resident isn't happy
November 16, 2008

The air around parts of Los Angeles was filled with smoke from brush fires Saturday.

The air in Glendale was filled with fireworks smoke.

The Americana at Brand shopping center kicked off its holiday season with a pyrotechnic display that sent neighbors running outside in alarm.

"It was really an inappropriate display. This was not the time to shoot off fireworks," Glendale resident John Barnes said. "The hotels around here were filled Saturday with fire evacuees."

Americana at Brand spokeswoman Jennifer Gordon said the pyrotechnics were part of a Christmas tree lighting ceremony that couldn't be rescheduled. "We weren't trying to be insensitive. My mother is one of those who had to evacuate because of the fires today."

Barnes was watching TV coverage of the fires when the fireworks went off. He grabbed his video camera and shot the display and the smoke the fireworks produced as evidence.

To him, the holiday event ended with a thud, not a boom.

--Bob Pool


Lakewood Accountability Action Group™ LAAG | www.LAAG.us | Lakewood, CA
A California Non Profit Association | Demanding action and accountability from local government™

click here to receive LAAG posts by email