I am guessing that if this is a valid story it will end up in the Pit but i don’t have all of the facts. I was listening to KTAR radio in Phoenix and the broadcaster was in telephone communication with an L.A. area reporter named “Don” from news “19” who was complaining about the L.A. F.D.'s response time Sunday night when his house burned down. The broadcaster then played a tape of Larry Himmel a San Diego reporter describing the destruction of his own home and Don was in the background saying “tasteless.” Don said that Larry was making a sexual joke at a time that was inappropriate. He went on to say that Larry now had his name all over the news covering his own house burning but Don had gotten no response even though he had the scoop Sunday night. The broadcaster then asked Don if he had set fire to his own house and Don said that he did and he did so to test the fire department’s response time. Has anyone else heard this story?
I live in LA and cannot think of any channel that is known as “News 19”. I’m not in LA right now, so I can’t give you a local angle, but this smells fishy.
Setting fire to your own house in Malibu during Santa Ana winds is serious stupid even for a reporter.
This is horseshit.
First of all, LAFD was not the primary response in Malibu, LA County was.
Second, LAFD is one of the most proactive and aggressive brush fire fighting departments.
As Rick noted, there is no Channel 19 in LA.
Think about the veracity of what you were told: A San Diego newsreporter would set fire to his own home, ostensibly 3 hours away in Malibu?
As I said before, this is utter horseshit.