There is Only ONE Profession in the World Where You CAN TOTALLY FAIL and be Lavishly Rewarded and Praised.

Tell the Assembly NO on AB 1383 and AB 569

fireman stuffing money in his pocket as everything around him burns

Jeanette and I and 9500 other Altadenans lost everything we owned in the Edison caused Eaton fire of 7 & 8 January 2025. Many Altadenans either got evacuation orders or did not and left. Jeanette and I received no such order. We fought the fire for five and a half hours in our neighborhood with garden hoses. We put fires out in our yard, on our roof, on Mr. Short’s roof on Evan and Kats roof and yard and the Board and Care across the street. We constantly and desperately put as much water as we could everywhere. As we did this, the heroic brave men and women of the Los Angeles County Fire Department stood outside a truck five doors down on olive in their respirators, fire helmet and Nomex turn out coats looking on. Doing JACK SHIT NOTHING. NOTHING.

At one point Jeanette called 911 in an absolute panic because the 100 year old palm tree across the street was on fire and as fronds burned off their connection to the tree they were hurled by the winds as mighty organic Molitov Cocktails landing on roofs and gardens as far away as a block, and her crazy husband was running around attempting to find hoses in peoples yards and save their houses. After she called the fire department sent a truck that circled the block three times. It seemed to do nothing, what it actually did is take three shots of video and kept circling till they could get a shot without the civilian (me) fighting the fire with a garden hose in it. The shot without me in it is in the first 15 seconds of the LA Fire Department unions propaganda movie about what heroes they are. I didn’t have a garden hose that could put that palm tree out. No one from the fire department even tried. Everything lost south of Ventura Street on Lincoln was lost because of that palm trees organic Molitov Cocktails. If there had just been two more guys in the area fighting the fire with garden hoses, those homes could have been saved, had they not, like I was, been forced to leave by the Sheriff.

I had thought that there was just something wrong with the fire truck in my area. That wasn’t the case. All over Altadena fire crews stood down. In some rare cases Alhambra fire hooked up to hydrants we are told did not work and saved the neighborhoods in Altadena where their employees and retirees lived. Brotherhood for the profession, kind of cool, but literally to the inferno with the citizens. Not cool. But the LA County fire crews stood down as neighbors begged them to save their businesses, apartments, and homes or to at least create a wall and stop the fire at a defensible space. They all claimed stand down orders or shook their heads no. Video has emerged of the Lake Avenue Commerical district on fire and the fire spreading . There is one crew of four guys halfheartedly hosing down a fully engulfed structure with everything around it already ablaze. There are literally more firemen on the street taking video and selfies in this footage than fighting the fire.

Kathryn Barger, the person who occupies the 5th Supervisorial seat, has refused to acknowledge these facts in any way. She keeps calling the La County Fire department heroes. But it gets worse.

California State Assembly woman Tina McKinnor (916 319 2061) has introduced AB 1385 and Assemblywoman Cathrine Stephani (916 319 2119) has introduced AB 569 each of these bills in response to the fires of January 7 & 8 WOULD INCREASE FIREFIGHTER PENSIONS. Because I guess already having a solid gold platinum plated jewel encrusted pension for a job not done isn’t enough? Really?

These Assemblywomen can find no money in the State budget to relieve Altadenans of Regional Planning Fees, Building permit fees, driveway apron rebuilding, electric, gas and sewer system reconnection, mandated Solar and battery walls, mandated Chapter 7 Wildland Interface standards, no money at all for the victims of utility and government negligence and outright malfeasance on the part of the fire department. But they are more than willing to give the failures in the fire department a larger pension at our expense.

There are not enough curse words vile enough to express what I think about that.

If you could find a moment today, please call each of these misguided Assemblywomen and request they withdraw their bill and provide some real aid to the victims of these fires.