As you've probably heard, Los Angeles has been plagued recently by someone (or someones) starting fires every night, usually igniting cars in car ports. Police have apprehended what we used to call a "suspect" and what we now call a "person of interest." The latter term, of course, makes the guy sound like he should be on the cover of People magazine, right next to the Kardashian of the Week.
Some reports say the "person of interest" is an immigrant. If that's so and if it turns out he set some or all of these fires, I suppose this will become a story not about an arsonist but about all immigrants.
Folks have been writing to ask if any of this is happening near me. Last night, there was a fire about ten blocks from here but that's as close as it's gotten. I do not, by the way, have a car port. Very early this morn from about 1 AM to my bedtime of 4:30 AM, I could hear sirens quite often in the distance and at one point, a helicopter was hovering over a location perhaps a mile from me. It reminded me of the Rodney King riots of '92. The destruction didn't make it into my area but I could hear sirens, see plumes of smoke in the distance and in the news, see that the riot was affecting places I was known to travel.
There were a number of moments from that week that I vividly recall but I thought of this one last night. Most of the meaningful TV news coverage of the looting and the burning was done by men in copters. They were showing us what was happening right then, as opposed to the reporters on the ground who were usually showing us aftermaths.
One night — I think it was a Friday — there came a moment when the chopper guy on one local channel was able to report that as far as he could tell, there were zero fires burning at that moment. That was the first time he'd been able to say that in days and to emphasize the concept, he did a 360° pan of the city from his aerial vantage point. Not a plume of smoke to be seen.
He mentioned a hillside and swooped down to give us a look. It was a grassy slope and on it were about thirty firemen, mostly in full gear, lying down and napping…and for some, it may have been the first time in days.
On my TV, I heard the news anchor, back at the studio, tell the copter pilot to bank closer so we could get a better look at those brave, hard-working public servants. And I heard the copter pilot say, "No, this is as close as I dare get. Any closer and they'll hear the helicopter, and if anyone ever deserved a chance to sleep, it's those guys." The in-studio anchor hastily agreed and retracted his suggestion.
Like I said, last night I thought about that. I never wanted to be a fireman. I wouldn't even have wanted to be Dean Martin if it required sliding down one of those poles. But I'm very glad there are people in this world who want to fight fires and help the public. Very glad indeed.