Central L.A. Scrambles as Medfly War Arrives : Spraying: The sight of malathion-bearing helicopters sent residents and homeless alike searching for cover.

Manuel Brown, a 38-year-old transient who has been living on the streets of Skid Row for three months, was just bedding down for the night on the hard sidewalk of Main Street when he heard the approaching helicopters.

Brown squinted into the night sky and assessed the situation: police raid.

Drugs? Gang warfare? Riot?

Nope. Malathion spraying.

“That’s scary,” Brown said from his plot of pavement, beer in hand. “I’ll have to see how I feel when I wake up.”

The state’s renewed aerial war against the Mediterranean fruit fly came to central Los Angeles late Thursday night, sending homeowners, tourists and Skid Row transients alike scrambling for cover or scratching their heads wondering: “What was that?”

The spraying over 14 square miles was the first time the helicopters have swooped over downtown since the infestation began nearly a year ago. The operation was over by 10:30 p.m.--just 90 minutes after the helicopters took off from Van Nuys Airport.

While the spraying left some people angry and afraid, it seemed to have barely been noticed by many others beneath the flight path.

Outdoor food stands were packed as usual. And the sidewalks of Skid Row serviced their normal complement of homeless sleepers.

Viewed from afar, the spraying of downtown provided something of a spectacle. Carlos Gallardo and two friends spent much of the evening on a hilltop in Elysian Park, gazing at the twinkling expanse of the city below.

“We saw everything,” said the West Los Angeles resident. “It was real neat. For a kid, it was like going to an air show.”

But Gallardo added that the spectacular view had a sinister element: “If you’re a grown-up and know what’s happening, it’s not so good. It’s like they’re poisoning people.”

In a rare exception to the standard Medfly battle plan, Dodger Stadium was spared Thursday night. Officials said this was because there are no fruit trees nearby. Similarly, many downtown high-rises were not sprayed because of nesting peregrine falcons.

Bill Lucas, managing director of the glass-covered Westin Bonaventure, said that even if the hotel’s block had been sprayed, it probably wouldn’t have made much difference.

“L.A. has got a lot of pollutants in the air anyway,” Lucas said. “It would have to be pretty severe for us to notice anything.”

The biggest problem caused by the spraying was down in Skid Row, where the city mobilized to take homeless people by bus to shelter.

Following cold-weather contingency plans, the Community Development Department dispatched buses to pick up homeless people and either took them to the Elysian Park Recreation Center or provided vouchers so they could stay in downtown hotels.

Bob Vilmur, homeless projects coordinator for the city, said city employees distributed flyers earlier this month about the possibility of spraying, which was later canceled.

This time, they were hard pressed to get the word out again. They got a full house, nonetheless, with 104 people packed into the Elysian Park Recreation Center and another 44 in downtown hotels.

Courtney Smith, 30, who has been homeless for six months, said many people on the streets never heard about the city’s offer of shelter.

“They only let a few missions know about it,” Smith said. “A lot of people never go to the missions. How are they supposed to hear about what is happening?”

Lewis Williams, 30, said that even if word had reached everyone on Skid Row, it might not have made much difference.

“Compared to the alcohol that gets drunk or the smoking on a (crack) pipe that goes on here every day,” Williams said as he sat on 6th Street, “how bad is malathion going to be?”