Why Wasn't This Westlake Incident on the LAFD Alerts Page?
I received a text from Father Dylan on Thursday night, alerting me to a fire at a boarded-up house in Westlake (edited to add: I’m told it may have been another type of incident, but firefighters were on the scene). Whenever I receive a tip about anything in Westlake, I know it’s going to break my heart.
I checked LAFD’s Alerts page for more information, but curiously, I found nothing. As of this writing, there still isn’t an alert on the page for this particular fire.
Since there are four videos on Citizen, something must have happened. Why wasn’t it listed on the alerts page?
I have yet to find anything in local news outlets regarding Thursday’s incident, but that doesn’t surprise me. Westlake, formerly one of the city’s nicest neighborhoods, tends to get ignored by the media (unless there’s a sensational story) and tends to get ignored by the city (except for when politicians want to pay lip service to the idea of cleaning it up).
Citizen footage showed the firemen dealing with something on the roof of the westernmost of the two abandoned, boarded up Craftsman houses. Just went by today and they are both still there, with no evidence of a fire.
Was the fire at 1520 or 1521 W 8th? 1520 is a multi-story apartment building that appears to be empty. 1521 is an old craftsman. As for non-reports, same thing occurs with crime reports. Under-reporting is an easy way for city hall to ignore the ongoing problems in the city.