Aspiring firefighters will feast on coffee shop’s old home.

HOT SPOT: The old Buffy’s coffee shop in downtown Torrance was considered a landmark among loyal customers who felt at home amid its 1950s-style Formica countertops and pedestal stools.

No more. Buffy’s moved across the street last month, and its old and hallowed quarters will soon be overrun with a new clientele: recruits from the Torrance Fire Department engaged in training exercises.

Seventeen recruits in the department’s current training class will practice breaking into the building where customers once gossiped over coffee and raisin toast. The trainees can’t practice with live fire because of environmental concerns, but they will use axes, pry bars, ram bars and lock breakers to force open doors.

The building is to be demolished as part of a

$40-million redevelopment project of 1990s shops and condominiums.

Another familiar downtown business could come under similar attack soon: Firefighters may next take their training exercises to the just-vacated Torrance Supermarket down the street.

TOP PROGRAM: A nationwide study of alcohol recovery programs, commissioned by two foundations, ranks the Beacon House Assn. of San Pedro among the top U.S. residential programs. Beacon House, a recovery center for indigent men, placed 14th in the study.

Beacon House scored particularly well in recovery categories, with 78% of its male clients maintaining their sobriety at least six months after a 90-day program. Also, 76% of the men who went through the program participate in Alcoholics Anonymous or other self-help groups for the same amount of time.

Conducted by a Minneapolis consulting firm, the study showed Beacon House spends an average of only $5,000 for each man completing its program, compared to $18,000 and up for the highest-priced programs. The median average cost was $9,200.

Not to mention that Beacon House has 4.5 paid staff members (and lots of volunteers), while other programs average 8.2 paid staff members.

The National Search for Excellence in Chemical Dependency Treatment competition was sponsored by the JM Foundation and the Scaife Family Foundation, East Coast organizations concerned with health and society issues.

HOSTAGE PRACTICE: In the old days, schools had air-raid drills. Fire drills remain popular. But Redondo Beach school officials chose a more up-to-date theme last week when they had a “mock hostage drill” at Adams Middle School.

Seven people were supposedly taken hostage, including a child and a principal, in the elaborate Thursday afternoon drill conducted by the Redondo Beach Police Department and Redondo Beach City School District. Nearly 100 people, including school administrators from Lawndale and Lennox, took part, with some of them playing the roles of students, nurses and teachers. The real students had been sent home for the day and no children were present.

Striving for realism, drill organizers even planned for fake reporters to call school officials asking questions about the “hostage crisis.”

“This is just an exercise. We want to be prepared in case something like this happens,” explained Thomas Cox, assistant superintendent of administrative services, when a real reporter happened to call Thursday afternoon. The school district took precautions to avoid any “War of the Worlds” type confusion that the crisis was real.

Principal Al Forthmann visited residents in the neighborhood to prepare them for the drill, and a media release warned that the exercise “in no way can or must be identified with any current events or rumored events.”

GRAFFITI EXPOSE: Officials in Inglewood have come up with a novel approach to try to keep city walls graffiti-free. The City Council has instructed police to give newspapers the photographs of adults who are convicted of graffiti vandalism, hoping to dissuade would-be taggers.

But at least one local newspaper editor doubts the tactic will work. Taggers frequently like attention and might be encouraged by the publicity, said Ron Smith, editor of the weekly Inglewood News.

Smith dislikes the idea of using newspapers as a form of punishment. Besides, he said, “Newspaper space is always shrinking, and I can’t see taking space to print photos of graffiti people.”

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

“We have seen his names in different places and he has contributed to blight in the area.”

--Deputy Los Angeles City Atty. Juana Webman describing 19-year-old Jeffery Patrick Lipka, believed to be one of the Wilmington area’s most prolific taggers. Lipka pleaded guilty to vandalism last week and will serve 30 days in jail.

LAST WEEK’S CITY HALL HIGHLIGHTS

Torrance: The Police Department named Mark Johnson, who works with troubled youths, as the department’s “Civilian Employee of the Year” for 1992. Johnson established the department’s branch of Outward Bound, a program that combines group counseling with wilderness experiences.

THIS WEEK’S CITY HALL HIGHLIGHTS

Inglewood: The school board will meet Wednesday night to tackle its $1.2-million deficit for the third time. District officials have suggested employees take a retroactive pay cut in order to balance the books by June 31. Unions representing teachers and other employees are opposed. The meeting will begin at 6:30 p.m. at the district offices, 401 S. Inglewood Ave.

San Pedro: A forum Saturday is scheduled to feature the candidates for Los Angeles mayor, Richard Riordan and Michael Woo, as well as the two runoff candidates for the 15th City Council District seat, incumbent Joan Milke Flores and challenger Rudy Svorinich. The mayoral forum will begin at 1 p.m., followed by the council forum at 2:30 p.m., at the Sheraton Los Angeles Harbor Hotel, 601 S. Palos Verdes St.