Melee Reflects New Threat to L.A. Firefighting Crews

In what fire officials described Saturday as the latest in an alarming number of threats to their ranks, a routine call to extinguish a rubbish fire in South-Central Los Angeles erupted into a fracas when a man who set the fire was splashed by a fire hose and allegedly struck a fireman with a board.

Authorities said residents pelted the four-man fire crew with rocks and debris from a lot near the uncompleted Century Freeway late Friday. The crew, fearing for their lives, issued an emergency radio call for help, prompting about 50 police and firefighters to converge on the scene.

Two residents were arrested on charges of assault and interfering with a police officer, while three firefighters, one paramedic, one police officer and at least two residents were injured, authorities said. All the injured were treated at hospitals and released.

Assistant Chief Thomas E. McMaster, who oversees fire operations across southern Los Angeles, described the incident as a troubling example of the growing danger facing firefighters and paramedics working in the inner city. In the last year, he said, firefighters have resorted to issuing a call for help four to five times a month.

Unarmed and vulnerable, fire crews have none of the duties of police officers but increasingly seem to be regarded as authority figures worth rebelling against, he said.

McMaster said there has been an uptick in problems since the riots last year, when firefighters were often targets for rioters using rocks, bottles and guns against any obvious symbol of authority. In the most serious incident, Fire Capt. Scott Miller was critically wounded by a sniper while driving a hook and ladder truck.

Fire personnel routinely wear bullet-resistant equipment when responding to calls that involve violence, but it is not unusual for paramedics and firefighters to be threatened or physically assaulted on even the most routine calls, McMaster said.

In two recent cases, a paramedic was told by an assailant not to help the man he had assaulted, while another man blocked firefighters from entering an apartment building near USC after he had set it afire.

Last year, a paramedic had to be transferred from his South-Central post after being threatened by gang members after a neighborhood shootout in which three people were gunned down, McMaster said. When the paramedic tried to help the victim whom he believed had the best chance of survival, a gang member held a gun to his head and ordered him to attend to “his homeboy.”

When the paramedic told the gang member that the homeboy was dead, the gang member replied, “If he is dead, you die,” McMaster said.

“The paramedic started working this guy up, treating him like there was still hope,” McMaster said. “But the next day when he showed up for work, we had to transfer him out of the area because his name was on his jumpsuit” and officials feared retaliation.

Since the riots last year, the LAPD and Fire Department have sought to better coordinate efforts in troubled neighborhoods--sometimes coming to each other’s rescue.

“Since the unrest of last year, we recognize the potential for violence toward them,” said Police Lt. Edmund Wilson of the Southeast Division. “There is great cooperation, and we respond posthaste to almost any call put out.”

In Saturday night’s incident, the firefighters’ distress call was first answered by a police sergeant, who authorities said was drawn into a scuffle with two or three residents. Overwhelmed by the assault, the sergeant yelled to the firefighters for assistance, prompting two of them to join the fray, authorities said.

“My people are instructed to duck and cover and get out of there in those kind of things, but when a police officer is looking at you and saying, ‘I need your help,’ you have to help,” McMaster said.

At least 50 officers and firefighters responded to the 116th Street lot. It took officers 20 minutes to disperse onlookers, police said.

Ignacio Padilla, 27, was arrested on charges of assaulting the firefighter with a deadly weapon, and his brother, Jose Padilla, 36, was arrested on charges of obstructing a police officer, police said. Family members disputed the police version of events, saying the brothers were beaten by police officers after they had left the lot.

“They weren’t protecting the firemen,” said Felix Padilla, 28, pointing to bloodstains on the concrete patio outside the family’s 116th Street home. He said the blood gushed from Ignacio Padilla’s head when a police officer struck him with a baton, re-injuring a head wound from a recent fight.

Wilson of the Police Department said he had “no information whatsoever that there was any improper conduct by any police officer there.”