Excitement on Argyle Ave

I live in Hollywood. Sirens are nothing new. Castle Argyle stands on the corner as a functioning senior living community. Get that many old guys in one place and you hear a fair number of ambulance sirens. Sorry old dudes, you know it's true.

Right after I got home this afternoon I went to water Igor's plants and heard siren after siren after siren. So I went to check it out and found Engine 274 parked right in front of my building, lights flashing, not a firefighter to be seen.

Once I made it to the sidewalk I could see four more fire engines and at least one ambulance up the hill a bit.

Let me go on record as saying that I hate looky-loos. Someone else is having a really horrible day and they don't need you gawking at them. Then I decided that this is my neighborhood and, as long as I don't get in the way and hinder the efforts of the firefighters, it was okay for me to take a look. I know, I'm a walking conundrum.

Once I got across the street and up the block a ways I could smell the smoke. It was an honest to goodness fire! One firefighter  was climbing the giant ladder to the roof of the building. There looked to be three others firefighters already up there. One had a chainsaw while the others carried long sticks with what looked like a giant hook at one end. Real heroes doing real work.

I don't want to diminish in any way whatever bad thing happened up the street. It didn't happen to me so it's easy to say it was no big deal. The fire crew had it under control and made it look easy. It's what they do. I hope everyone was safe and the damage was minimal. However, if the fire department is crawling around on your roof it's probably not good.

This all happened between 4:30 and 5:30ish so folks were making their way home only to find the street completely blocked off with, you know, fire engines. The Hollywood Hills can be a bitch to navigate but there is a way to get in and out without using Argyle by going across Holly Mount and down Vista Del Mar. Why does no one else seem to know this?

Cars kept coming around a corner and then stopping dumbfounded at the immovable obstacle in their way. Most of them didn't get past the first truck in front of my building. They took in the situation by staring for a minute or so then made a u-turn and went away

But there was one girl in a jeepy suv thing who was completely indignant about the whole thing. She drove right up to the blockade as if she expected them to get out of her way. Then she sat there and stared at them, the firefighters. And they proceeded to ignore her. Now she was a pretty girl and I don't think she's used to being ignored. Not by men. Certainly not by rugged men in uniform. Not by anyone. She sat there for six minutes from when I looked at the clock. Then she finally conceded that they weren't going to remove themselves to accommodate her and turned around by making maybe the worst three point turn on a street wide enough for a UPS truck to make a simple u-turn that I've ever seen. Me and the two little old Armenian ladies I was standing with laughed out loud at her folly. I can't say we were talking, me and these ladies, because their English is broken and my Armenian is non-existent. But they were on their afternoon walk, I've seen them before coming and going from Castle Argyle, and they seemed very worried about all the commotion. I managed to convenience them it was a small fire and no one seemed hurt. Then we laughed together at the silly girl.

Thank you Station 82 and anyone else that came to help. Thank you Battalion 5. Thank you LAFD and firefighters everywhere.