The Avalon Fire Department put down a fire on Metropole Avenue on Tuesday, April 21.
The Fire Department responded to the reported fire at 12:01 p.m., according to a notice posted on the city website.
One structure was destroyed and one person suffered a minor injury, according to the notice.
The area around the event was temporarily evacuated, with residents asked to go to City Hall.
The fire was out in 50 minutes, according to the notice.
“Sorry, I don’t have a PowerPoint. We were a little busy last few hours,” said Avalon Fire Chief Michael Alegria at the City Council meeting that was held at 5 p.m.
“I just want to publicly commend all these guys behind me,” Alegria said, gesturing to a group of fire fighters standing against the wall at the back of the council chambers.
“They did a heck of a job today. Um, that could have gone really, really bad. They showed up,” Alegria said.
“We used the old siren. We haven’t used that in forever, but that was one of those easy calls of I need people right now,” Alegria said.
“A lot of residents helped. A lot got in the way, but these guys behind me right now deserve a huge round of applause and thank you for the stuff they did,” Alegria said.
Everyone in the Council Chambers applauded and got to their feet.
“That’s one of those places where if I people ask where don’t you want a fire? That was one of them. The It’s just a stairwell in between each thing. There’s brush, there’s patios above, there’s wooden fences, there’s the weeds,” Alegria said.
“Luckily, we had a hydrant right in front. Jimmy Buddy was our engineer today. Had multiple lines going. Tough deal. I was so glad I did not hear his voice or somebody say, ‘Hey, we lost water pressure’,” Alegria said.
The Avalon fire chief said the new fire engine came in handy.
“Thank the Lord there was a fresh water hydrant there where they parked,” Alegria said.
“They had some accessibility issues. They had to use the chainsaw, break through a fence, cut through another fence, but once they got there, they were able to put a lot more water on it and that helped us,” Alegria said.
“We had two helicopters from LA County. They brought over eight personnel. At one point, when they when they asked if I needed them, I walked down the street a little bit and looked up and it was at that point where I think we got it, but if we have another call right now or if we don’t and it gets into this attic in front of us, we’re going to need more help,” Alegria said.
Fortunately, the Fire Department did not receive another other calls at that time, according to Alegria.
“We’ve trained for this. It’s one of those you don’t want to do,” Alegria said.
“Thank God it wasn’t the middle of the night,” he said.
He said there would be an investigation into the fire.
Mayor Anni Marshall said the street was narrow and people park on the other side of the street. “How did you maneuver your vehicles?” she asked.
Alegria said people park in the worst spots and that keeps fire fighters from getting there.
“Luckily there was no one illegally parked on that street like there usually is, or we would have really been a little bit delayed to get by,” Alegria said.
“Fantastic work on everybody’s part,” Marshall said.
“You saved the town; cause thank god the wind was blowing the way it did.
“A lot of people were a lot of the upper Metropole residents were all around watering down houses,” Alegria said.
“We could have had a little bit better crowd control. Eventually, we cleared everybody out. We had to have a deputy come up and help remove some other people out of the way at one point. But these guys did a heck of a job,” Alegria said.
The firefighters received a second round of applause.
“I’d like to publicly say they did an outstanding job,” said Capt. John King, Avalon Sheriff’s Station commander.
“The Fire Department was fantastic today and the community that came out and helped out and we had everything you could possibly imagine out there,” King said.
“I’m always impressed by the community here, but it was very apparent today out on the scene,” King said.
