Los Angeles County firefighters pulled up in full force Wednesday afternoon to The Dylan on the eastside of West Hollywood. Traffic was blocked from La Brea to Formosa going West on Santa Monica Boulevard. Reason for the call — smoke reported coming from a second floor apartment.
Dispatchers sent Engine 8, Engine 7, Engine 38, Quint 3, Quint 51 and Squad 7. Battalion 1 and Battalion 20 responded. Beverly Hills Fire Department sent units under mutual aid. Los Angeles City’s Engine 41 followed. All units worked under Command 4040.
Engines lined up along Santa Monica Boulevard, one marked. Crews pulled hose off the trucks. Firefighters in full turnout gear and air tanks moved toward the entrance in groups, axes and coiled hose slung over their shoulders. It was quite the response.
Turns out the smoke was coming from someone burning sage. That’s right. No fire. No emergency. Just someone cleansing their aura and their space. Turns out this was not the first time this has happened building representative told WEHOonline. In fact, they said it happens often at the property.
Firefighters kept working the scene for several more minutes before anyone would put it on the record. Battalion Chief Jason Centeno of the Los Angeles County Fire Department told WEHOonline “It was essentially just smoke coming from a particular product,” Centeno said. “That was not combustible.” “Correct,” Centeno said, when asked if it was sage.
Nine units, two departments, a battalion chief, all for smoke that turned out to be sage. It’s a big response for burning sage. But here’s the thing, nobody on scene knows that until they check, especially in a high rise like the Dylan.
The Dylan has a history. Deputies shut down Santa Monica Boulevard on December 6 after callers reported people on the rooftop dressed in black, one holding what looked like a rifle. A helicopter circled. Deputies searched the roof and found nobody there. What they recovered was an air rifle. No arrests. No injuries.
Two years before that, a man inside his unit at The Dylan fired five rounds. Two went through the wall into the apartment next door and hit a woman in her 50s, once in the neck and once in the leg. She wasn’t the target, LASD said. Seven units nearby were evacuated. A sheriff’s helicopter landed on La Brea Avenue. The suspect held out for hours before deputies broke in and found the apartment empty, just his pets left behind. He was arrested a month later on unrelated warrants. The woman, identified in later reporting as Larisa Pereshivaylova, a 57-year-old nurse, died within weeks of the shooting.
False alarms or high rise fires, we sure are grateful to the men and women who show up every time, whatever it turns out to be.
It’s too bad that the city council does not consult LAFD when they approve more and more high rise buildings in town.
With the densities envisioned by SB 79, which is being promoted by John Erickson and Chelsea Byers, the City and County had better be prepared to make some serious investments in expanding WeHo’s fire stations, equipment and number of fire fighters. A lot of massive development is being promoted without any real thought to the need for expanding infrastructure to meet the growing needs of our community.