Long-standing Rexall Drug Store, sitting on the corner of the 200 block of San Gabriel Blvd and Live Oak, burned down in May of this year. It sat at the end of a tiny retail lot with a local TV station and T-Mobile Meritas Wireless. But the drug store is what grips the imaginations of those familiar with the area. It's where memories were forged over 50 years ago. The building is only two structures north of the nostalgic San Gabriel Lanes [I bowled here only once by myself and enjoyed a beer one evening after work] which is closed and occupies prime real estate in what has become over the last 15 years coveted by local businessmen. Someone saw fit to spare the San Gabriel Lanes.
The last fire I remember in San Gabriel was 1999, short weekend fire that erupted in a science building at San Gabrielino High School. Once the cause was determined and insurance payouts were made, the school, of which only one or two rooms were burned, had been demolished. Between San Gabriel Blvd. and the rear of the school was a wonderful practice football field. That is gone. These fires seem suspicious. My suspicion is that they were both caused by arsons. Professionals. And then managed by fire engineers or firemen who came on the scene in the midnight hours to douse it. Let me explain. The San Gabrielino fire brought in its wake a mega school that was repositioned for prominent posturing. Its easterly wall comes right up to the curb of San Gabriel Blvd. The school has a marquee that displays trivial but propagandized messages to the public. There is now a traffic signal at Scott Street when before the school there was none. The design of the building is for maximum exposure. The city wants its students to literally be on the world map and not recessed some 50 yards from the street.
The Tribune reports as follows:
A massive, three-alarm fire destroyed three businesses Thursday night and injured two firefighters, authorities said.
The fire caused an estimated $2 million worth of damage, San Gabriel Fire Department Division Chief Bryan Frieders said. The damage to the building was estimated at $1.5 million, and the damage to the contents was valued at $500,000.
The heat and intensity of the flames forced firefighters to take a defensive stance around the blaze, dousing it with water from the perimeter.
The heat and intensity of the flames forced firefighters to take a defensive stance around the blaze, dousing it with water from the perimeter.
The first structural fire that I recall was the old San Gabrielino High School that was recessed on the west side of San Gabriel Blvd. just north of Valley at Kenmore Drive. The school burned down over the weekend. The stated cause were chemicals in a chemistry lab caught fire. What, suddenly chemicals stored in a chemistry lab spontaneously combusted? Really? That fire on March 20, 1999 was an arson fire according to the LA Times. In that article, you have the same fearmongering by a School Board member, Nancy Trask, concerned that someone in the community started the fire. Well, no duh. And by "community" does she mean the San Gabriel community or the LA community or the Southern California community or a certain element from the local community? She doesn't say. She wouldn't be a politician if she weren't menacingly vague and casually equivocating. She says ""I hate to think anyone in the community could be responsible for burning down part of the school." And couldn't the community also be someone within her own circles? It could be her community of corporate brokers, looking to make big bucks on insurance payouts and reconstruction projects. I mean have you seen that new school. The school has a new gym. And a new baseball field. But Trask has greater vision. She overlooks all of these expenditures. Don't get me wrong. I love it that the kids have facilities that they can play in and on that make them feel proud and part of a community. Wonderful. But how was all of it paid for? And now Trask is concerned, concerned that someone in the community started the fire. I love that word "concern" for how non-specific it is. You can use that word with anything and anyone. It can be used to express worry or can be used to indict someone of a crime as she uses it. But that's what politicians do. They blame the victims in a headlong rush to judgment and their charges make them sound like they're leaders in the . . . no, concerned leaders in the community. I smell a rat. Trask knows contemptuously how her remark is used to hang a loose indictment on some local teenager and possible Chinese teenager. Given the fact that the
Chinese population in San Gabriel has grown exponentially against other groups, one has to ask, Ms. Trask, were you being racist with your innocuous concern?
Another fire in 2007 was responsible for the rebirth of Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. The principal at the time was a one Omar del Cueto, the loose-tongued hack whose wife, Linda del Cueto, was the head of staff relations for the Los Angeles Unified School District. No conflict of interest here. Move along. And certainly no corruption either. Please, move along. The auditorium fire at Garfield High School in East LA was started by a 17-year-old boy, who was sentenced to six months in juvenile camp and ordered to pay partial restitution, authorities said.
The youth, who was not named because he is a minor, will also be placed on probation and ordered to stay away from the school as part of Wednesday's conviction and sentencing.
Built in 1925, the auditorium was an East Los Angeles landmark. School officials hope to rebuild the auditorium and have begun raising funds for that effort. -- Ari Bloomekatz
No mention of parents' role in paying restitution. No mention of how the 17-year-old is going to pay "partial restitution" or how much that restitution is or to whom he's going to pay it. Does he pay the LA Unified School District? Not word one.
The details of the Garfield fire sound innocent enough. A kid was playing with matches in the auditorium. Things got out of hand. A fire consumed the auditorium. And burned down. That's the "Little Red Riding Hood" version. Who knows the details? This was also started over the weekend. The campus is gated, we're all told for our safety, yet kids get on campus all the time at all times to get or to do what they want. Does no one see the irony or conflict of interest? Fences destroy the school culture during the day but are used for safety at night to secure equipment. But it doesn't secure equipment.
Something is going on here. Obviously, insurance arsons work with fire departments. That's why there is praise for firemen. They manage fires. Putting them out at a pace that fits their goals is one of their assigned tasks. Even when WTC 7 came down it was the firefighters who were clearing people out of the area before the detonation signaled and you saw the Building come down in free fall. I am not doing an investigation. It's futile. Asking questions about a fire department or the insurance company holding the policy is tantamount to asking the federal government who was responsible for 9/11.
Who can forget how Glendale Fire Chief, John Leonard Orr, who was indicted for serial arson? That was 1984, the year the Olympics were held in LA. Since September 11, 2001, fire department personnel have been anointed as "First Responders," setting them and their service apart and distinct from the rest of civil servicemen.
The Rexall Drug store fire is under investigation. It burned down three businesses and a corner lot on a boulevard that has in the past few years been marking itself as a prime retail real estate. Builders in the area want large, glitzy, lucrative buildings where they can build condos above and retail stores, coffee shops, and professional services on the first floor. A lot like the new condos and outdoor malls on Main Street in Alhambra near Atlantic Blvd. I guess the only way for the owners to sell or hand over their property is to burn it down, collect insurance money in addition to the money received in the sale of the property. The irony of it all is that the seedy sports bar just down the street survived. If a cabal of civic leaders are set on gutting that block to make way for new retail centers, then they have a problem--they're going to have to get rid of all of the other stores. Who knows? Maybe the fire was just an accident.
A dear woman from the neighborhood wrote, "I used to stop at that drug store if I had any change on me and buy the chocolate covered cherry candy bar. Tasted so good in those days! The lady was always nice that worked there but was always using something to lighten her skin. Very sad all of that area--good old fashioned living was all right there, the grocery store, the bakery and this one shop where we could buy Shasta soft drinks for 5 cents after we hunted for cans in the empty lot behind our home and turned them in for money."
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