Film Crews in Fire Areas
I live in the hills of Bel-Air, where many years ago my neighborhood and many others were devastated by a brush fire that completely destroyed residences and endangered lives and property. It was a total disaster. Hundreds of houses were burned. And as a result insurance rates went sky-high, if you could get insurance at all.
Movie companies have now moved into this area, with their crews, heavy equipment, catering trucks and dressing room trailers, leaving no room for clear passage to or from Sunset Boulevard.
Just recently, I experienced the difficulties of trying to drive in and out of this neighborhood, when I left my home on the way to a doctor’s appointment and was stopped for 10 minutes by film company security officers, dressed in LAPD uniforms, while they were trying to regulate traffic coming up the narrow, winding street and traffic trying to go down, such as myself.
Why is it necessary to film in a fire area in the hills, where there are signs informing the rest of us that this is a fire area, and that parking will absolutely not be permitted at any time? Is it because film companies are saving money by not having to build sets on studio lots?
Surely there are safer areas in the city where location filming can be done than in heavily trafficked fire areas.
LOIS MARX
Los Angeles
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