Tracy Manzer: May 2009 Archives
Several hearings, and one murder trial, were postponed Wednesday at the Long Beach and Norwalk courthouses.
The oldest of the cases is a murder trial initially scheduled to begin Wednesday for Virginia Krall, a 25-year-old Lakewood woman accused of going on a stabbing spree in June of 2006, killing one neighbor and wounding three others after she sneaked into their home through an open window.
I've only recently begun blogging and, frankly, I'm not particularly comfortable with it.
It's not that I have a problem with reporting on the Internet or bloggers, it's just that I don't think my beat -- cops, courts and fire -- lends itself to blogging. As a reporter I'm to remain objective and blogging -- which, in my opinion, is often more editorial -- is not always a wise option in cases involving serious liability and that affect a lot of people.
So I've refrained from blogging about any personal experiences related to my beat, at least until now.
A Long Beach Fire Department strike team first sent to fight the Jesusita Fire on Tuesday continued to battle the raging blazes in the region Thursday, saving the world-renown Santa Barbara Botanic Garden from total destruction.The team, which is working with six other teams deployed from Los Angeles and Ventura counties, was deployed to the Mission Canyon area early Thursday for a 12-hour shift hampered by the danger of fighting fires in 60 mph winds, in areas filled with high-fire danger fuels and while dodging downed power lines that left live electrical lines lying across roadways, said Battalion Chief Frank Hayes.
The gardens and its four buildings were hit by a heavy firestorm fanned by the erratic winds, Hayes said.
All of the structures were saved, expect for a 30-square-foot wooden deck, prompting the caretaker of the gardens to express his gratitude to all the firefighters working in the area.
The caretaker's home, located across the canyon, was destroyed along with a number of other homes and structures. Mandatory evacuations are in place and the fire took a heavy toll on fire crews after flames overtook a Ventura County Fire crew, leaving three firefighters seriously injured with burns and smoke inhalation.
Anticipating a repeat performance of yesterday afternoon's explosion of wind and flame, Jesusita Fire incident commanders have doubled the number of helicopters they're sending into the fray, tripled the number of fixed-wing aerial tankers, and increased the number of firefighters by 400. That brings the number of planes to 12, the number of helicopters to 10, and the total number of firefighters to 1,394--up from the previous high of 850 firefighters on Wednesday, May 6.
The fire's size was estimated to be 1,300 acres as of early Thursday morning, May 7 -- with zero containment.
With temperatures soaring Thursday, and more expected Friday, authorities were girding for further losses and considering switching the 12-hour deployments to 24-hour sessions, Santa Barbara fire authorities said.
Little of the information provided at the meeting was new, although Deputy Chief Bill Blair noted that gang-involved murders have increased 50 percent this year and the city has seen "a huge uptick in homicides and murders this year."
Batts and his staff, however, denied rumors that the increase in violence is tantamount to a gang war and attributed the rise in deaths to conflict in neighborhoods long known to be plagued by gang activity.
