Archive: Responders

"The world stood still today for my sweet husband," his wife posted after a solemn procession Sunday drew crowds along several SoCal freeways. "He is home."

This weekend's fire in Los Angeles isn't even the worst La Tuna Canyon fire in recent times.

Wong was based in Rancho Park and was training at his new station downtown when he fell from a ladder and died.

Owen was shot and killed answering a home burglary call in Lancaster.

A motorcycle rider named Jesse Lopez was cruising with friends on Glendora Ridge Road in the Angeles National Forest when he collided head-on with a fire truck. The GoPro...

Henry Solis was arrested in Ciudad Juarez and handed over to the FBI at the border.

Task Force 2 reunited with families Sunday at the base in Pacoima.

A Missouri couple received apologies from a climber rescued off a cliff at Point Dume.

The 15-year-old, found with rescue dogs, says there are others near him in the debris of a collapsed hotel where he worked.

The urban search and rescue team has previously gone to Haiti, Japan, New Zealand and the Hurricane Katrina destruction zone.

The officer was killed last night when he was trapped between a loose boat and rocks near the Green Pleasure Pier.

Alcaraz was killed on his motorcycle in a traffic collision in Torrance. He was due to start work in West LA division on Sunday.

Assistant Chief Ralph Terrazas would be the LAFD's first Latino chief.

Ben Carlson, 32, had been a lifeguard for 15 years. The swimmer he rescued made it back to the beach.

Rihanna and Steven Soboroff, the president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, are certainly making the most out of their recent encounter at the Clippers playoff game. The broken phone is paying off for the LAPD Foundation.

Allen was killed by a runaway truck on the same Beverly Hills street where officer Nick Lee also was killed by a truck. The city has ordered a halt to truck activity and put in radar to catch speeders.

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck announced this morning's death of six-year veteran Roberto Sanchez, 32, of the Harbor station. He is the third officer to die while driving in recent weeks.

Officer Chris Cortijo of the Valley Traffic Division died today of injuries he suffered when his motorcycle was hit by a DUI suspect in Sun Valley on Saturday.

An unmarked LAPD car reportedly racing to a crime scene with lights and siren on went through a red light at Fletcher Drive and San Fernando Road and collided with another vehicle. In all seven people were hurt.

The mother of seven-year-old Tyler Seddon pays her respects to the officer who helped brighten her ill son's day.

Nicholas Choung Lee is the Hollywood division officer who was killed today in the collision of his patrol car with a truck in Beverly Hills. Chief Charlie Beck tweeted, "A man of greatness and selflessness. Nick was a great cop."

Mayor Eric Garcetti's office just released a statement on the death of an Los Angeles Police Department officer in a Beverly Hills crash this morning.

A Los Angeles police officer was killed this morning and a second injured when their LAPD car collided with a truck in Beverly Hills. No names yet.

For a Column One story in the LA Times, reporter Joel Rubin and photographer Brian Van der Brug embedded with a class of recruits at the LAPD academy a few years ago. They followed the careers of several who made it through.

The California Highway Patrol announced today that Officer Juan Gonzalez, 33, and Officer Brian Law, 34, died this morning when their cruiser came upon a crash on state route 99 near Kingsburg, south of Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley.

Two men from Ensenada were convicted of ramming a Coast Guard inflatable, throwing Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne III into the water near Santa Cruz Island. He suffered a fatal injury in the 2012 incident.

Architect Gerhard Becker pleaded no contest Friday to involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 death of Los Angeles city firefighter Glenn Allen, who died fighting a fire at Becker's home on Viewsite Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

One Long Beach police substation doesn't have to go far to obtain donuts. Photo inside.

Officer Don Thompson, a 26-year veteran assigned to the bomb squad, spotted the wreck, jumped over the center divider and cut the unconscious driver out of a burning Mercedes. Both savior and saved suffered burns requiring treatment.

Smashing your car into any cop's vehicle is never advised, but this was really the wrong guy to hit.

After the fire department shut down its popular Twitter feeds, citing some new lawyer advice, Mayor Eric Garcetti's spokesman told them to not be ridiculous. The feeds are back up.

A dark or silver Mercedes-Benz struck an LAPD officer and his motorcycle on Pacific Coast Highway at Sunset a little before 8 p.m. tonight. The officer was taken to UCLA with non-life threatening injuries.

All three are expected to be OK. The church built in the 1890s is located within the 27th Street Historic District in South Los Angeles.

An unusual piece of heartwarming news out of the Los Angeles County jails.

It is what the headline says it is. County fire used to use motorcycles to get around.

The Los Angeles Fire Department news and information blog announced today that Fire Captain/Paramedic Matthew G. McKnight was found unresponsive this morning inside the Metropolitan Fire Communications Center on East Temple Street.

Sheriff's deputy Jose Rigaberto Sanchez, 28, was arrested Monday evening and charged with eleven felonies including sexual penetration under the color of authority, rape under fear or duress, and soliciting a bribe from his alleged victims. The crimes were alleged to have occurred in Palmdale in 2010.

Just awful news out of the Prescott area in central Arizona. Nineteen firefighters who were battling a fire near Yarnell in Yavapai County were overrun by flames and deployed their shelters. They were later found dead in and around the shelters. All but one is from the Prescott FD's hotshot team.

An unidentified Los Angeles Police Department gang officer helping to search a home in the unincorporated Willowbrook area this evening was shot in the face and neck by a suspect hiding in the attic. The house is surrounded by cops.

A Los Angeles County sheriff's helicopter crew flew 60 miles off the coast on Monday to rescue a scientist with a serious leg injury. A crew member taped the aerial rescue on a helmet camera.

MacKay died Tuesday of wounds incurred during the firefight with fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner outside a cabin in the 7 Oaks area of the San Bernardino Mountains. He lived in Redlands and was assigned to the Yucaipa station. MacKay is survived by his wife, 7-year-old daughter and four-month-old son.

If I'm the publisher of the LA Times, I probably reject the big ads for "Southland" right now and don't let images of cops with guns take over my website for a small amount of revenue.

Crain, an 11-year veteran of the Riverside Police Department, was the officer killed the morning of Feb. 7 when allegedly ambushed by rogue ex-LAPD cop Christopher Dorner. He was an 11-year veteran of the Riverside PD, a Marine veteran of Kuwait, and leaves a wife and two children.

An ex-LAPD cop is the suspect in those two Irvine slayings, the department was sued by a Hollywood executive who says officers beat him, the Sheriff's Department moved to fire seven deputies who belonged to a secret clique, and a Building and Safety inspector agreed to plead guilty to bribery.

The final occupants of Parker Center moved out last Friday and today LAPD officials ceremonially closed the headquarters where Bill Parker vowed to stop the mob and Joe Friday lectured many seasons worth of Dragnet bad guys. Read or listen to the departrment's end of watch message.

The Voice For The Animals Foundation has put out a 2013 calendar featuring LAPD officers with their own rescue animals. Proceeds go for medical treatment, food and shelter for animals. Chief Beck is on the cover.

Grieving members of the Coast Guard Cutter Halibut and other friends spoke to the media in Marina del Rey Monday about their late shipmate, Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne.

Chief Petty Officer Horne, of Redondo Beach, was out with the Marina Del Rey cutter Halibut when a suspected smuggling vessel rammed his inflatable boat, throwing Horne into the sea near Santa Cruz Island.

For the first time since a class of new firefighters was inducted in 2009, the Los Angeles Fire Department will crank up the hiring and training of recruits. The numbers won't be big — 300 slots over the coming two years.

West Covina police officer Eduardo Flores had a busy morning on Monday.

City Attorney opinions "failed to exercise the skill, prudence, and diligence required of attorneys when they are formulating advice," says the mayor's lawyer. The chief deputy city attorney scoffs in response.

Jon Regardie, editor of the Downtown News, has some Mobius Strip-inspired fun with the Los Angeles Fire Department's confusing messages about its response time on fire and ambulance calls.

Mayor Villaraigosa just announced that he's appointing the police department's former crime stats head as Interim Director of Statistical Analysis and Review at the fire department.

Mayoral candidate Austin Beutner is providing this map letting residents click on any Los Angeles Fire Department station to see the local response time stats.

Video and photos: Two Chinese seamen with severe burns on a fishing vessel 700 miles off Acapulco were brought in by the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard.

Gerhard Albert Becker was arrested Saturday on his arrival from Spain at LAX, and he's scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon on a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death last year of LAFD veteran Glenn Allen.

They want your vote to win a kitchen makeover from Ikea. So they had some video fun.

Shervin Lalezary, the Beverly Hills real estate attorney and reserve deputy sheriff who made the bust of arson suspect Harry Burkhart, was on Ellen DeGeneres' show.

I guess the Los Angeles County reserve sheriff's deputy who made the traffic stop that netted arson suspect Harry Burkhart is OK looking too.

This time it's a captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department arrested on suspicion of trying to buy seven balloons of simulated heroin from undercover officers near Avenue 61 and Figueroa Street in Highland Park.

Old police cars and other emergency vehicles, many from TV shows and movies, will be on parade Tuesday starting at 11:30 a.m.

The LAPD says the officers were working undercover near Vermont Avenue and Leeward about 9:15 p.m. when they saw a gang-related shooting and intervened.

Officer Ryan Stringer of the Alhambra Police Department was responding to a robbery call early this morning when his patrol car collided with another from the department.

Andrew Garton, 44, a seven-year veteran of the Hawthorne Police Department, was escorting the procession for Manhattan Beach officer Mark Vasquez when his motorcycle was involved in a crash with another officer.

Sheila Kelliher, a firefighter-paramedic at the county's West Hollywood fire station, won a cooking contest with clean, healthy chili.

Jose Diance-Cruz, 23, of the Southwest station was thrown from his truck after hitting the guardrail on the eastbound Ventura Freeway at Van Nuys Boulevard.

A Los Angeles Fire Department urban search and rescue team went out today to clean graffiti off the rock beside the 134 freeway that gives Eagle Rock its name. See the photo.

Steve Jenkins is in surgery in "very guarded" condition after being shot in the face on Dronfield Avenue, LAPD chief Charlie Beck announced.

The fire department is streaming live tonight from the desk of public information office Brian Humphrey.

Ahead of the vernal equinox and the Persian celebration of Nowruz, the L.A. Fire Department blog has posted a reminder — in english and Persian.

Japan is probably the most prepared country in the world, but the spreading misery and risk of nuclear disaster shows that you can't prepare adequately for an 8.9 magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami.

L.A. County Fire's urban search and rescue team boarded buses last night for LAX.

Ted Soqui at LA Photo has posted a page of pictures from this morning's memorial procession in Downtown for fallen LAFD firefighter Glenn Allen. Links to more coverage.

Streets around City Hall and the cathedral will be closed Friday morning for the funeral procession and service for Glenn Allen, the LAFD veteran killed fighting a fire in the Hollywood Hills last week.

Members of the Los Angeles County Fire Department's search and rescue team are at LAX right about now boarding a flight for New Zealand.

Glenn Allen had been with the Los Angeles Fire Department for 38 years and had been contemplating retirement. He died after noon today of injuries incurred while battling a house fire in the Hollywood Hills on Thursday.

Veteran firefighter battling for his life, Jerry West statue unveiled and the mayor's stadium committee meets.

The student was shot today near Bell High school, the LAUSD school police officer outside El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills.

Live-fire training for the LAFD at LAX early on Tuesday morning.

A house fire last week in Boyle Heights claimed all of the musical instruments and clothing of 19 mariachi musicians. On Friday night, a benefit at Mariachi Plaza on 1st Street raised some money.

Over the past two years, Los Angeles County emergency responders have been quietly preparing for a massively bad scenario: explosion of a 10-kiloton "improvised nuclear device" in the San Fernando Valley.

Good Samaritans on Burbank Boulevard in Van Nuys used a crowbar and guts to free an older man trapped in his burning 1932 Ford after a four-car accident on Sunday. Watch the video.

A memorial service for Phillip Ortiz will be held at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Downtown.

The California Highway Patrol is confirming for media that Officer Ortiz died at 5:50 p.m.

Yeah, don't call 911 to ask about possible 911 surcharges.

Her name has not yet been released. She was pronounced dead at the scene of a four-car crash in Diamond Bar.

California Task Force 2 got a heroes welcome from friends and loved ones when the buses pulled into L.A. County Fire's urban search and rescue compound in Pacoima.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department urban search and rescue team in Port-Au-Prince pulled another woman from the earthquake rubble. In this one, you can hear the crowd applauding and chanting "U.S.A!"

Task Force 2 comes through again. Just watch the video.

Firefighters apparently from California Task Force 2, the L.A. County FD urban search and rescue team in Haiti, are live on CNN trying to reach a girl buried in rubble in Port-Au-Prince who is believed to be tapping messages to rescuers.

Jenny Burman at Chicken Corner went over to TiGeorges' Chicken, the Echo Park restaurant that is becoming a center for the local Haitian community.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department's urban search and rescue team, veterans of Katrina and the South Asia tsunami, is poised to head for Haiti.

Officer Aragon was off-duty when his motorcycle crashed around 2:15 a.m. at Fletcher Drive and Larga Avenue, according to the L.A. Times and CBS 2. He was pronounced dead at...

Retired Los Angeles Fire Department captain Jim Perry was killed today in a crash on U.S. 395 near Reno. Perry was well known to local media and was editor of...

It took alpine-trained volunteers and a helicopter to do it, but Andrew Hillery, 24, and Chris Cannizzaro, 23, both of Playa Del Rey, were collected today from the deep snow...

Randal Simmons, LAPD SWAT "It wasn't until I saw the 10 o'clock news that I fully appreciated how many people lined Vermont and Slauson to greet the procession escorting...

The firefighter who suffered fatal injuries today in Westchester was identified this evening as Brent A. Lovrien. He was a 10-year veteran assigned to the 'A' Platoon at Fire Station...

An underground explosion around 2 pm blew off manhole covers on Sepulveda Boulevard near La Tijera. Both streets were closed briefly for air ambulance operations. A gas leak or electrical...

The headline above is the first line of Dr. Mauricio Heilbron Jr.'s Op-Ed piece in today's Long Beach Press-Telegram. The boy is the 11-year-old who was cut down Sunday night...

It wasn't until I saw the 10 o'clock news that I fully appreciated how many people lined Vermont and Slauson to greet the procession escorting the remains of Randal Simmons...

Every network owned TV station in Los Angeles plus KTLA has switched live to the Simmons funeral. Channel 4 handled the bringing in of the casket nicely: no talking. Just...

Motorcycle officers working the route of the Randy Simmons funeral procession have marked their helmets with the radio designation of his SWAT unit: 41-D. Holy Geography, Batman: Furnell Chatman, holding...

The paralyzed former LAPD officer and her husband, officer Tim Pearce, welcomed Lucas Braedon Pearce into the world yesterday. All are doing well. Ripatti was shot in South L.A. in...

The LAT's Al Seib captures the memorable image of a sad day for the LAPD. It's posted on the Times website, along with a profile of slain officer Randal Simmons...

SWAT team veteran Randal Simmons, left, was killed this morning during a shootout with a suspect in the Valley community of Winnetka. He is the first member of the Special...

Remember the murder last year in Long Beach of off-duty Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Maria Cecilia Rosa? She was apparently surprised by two guys on a morning crime spree...

Hector Villalta, a rookie officer in the West L.A. station, was arrested Saturday on suspicion of sexual assault. A female companion complained the assault occurred after they came home from...