Latest News


A brush fire on PCH at Corral Cyn on Thursday shut PCH down. It was extinguished quickly, and the highway later reopened.



Official report of this week's fire on the Venice Boardwalk from the Los Angeles Fire Department:.

An outside fire quickly spread to and destroyed a vacant commercial building near the Venice Beach Boardwalk just before dawn, but thankfully caused no injury.

The Los Angeles Fire Department was notified of a rubbish fire at 6:19 AM on January 13, 2021 at 723 South Ocean Front Walk in Venice, where firefighters arrived quickly to discover the outside fire involving a homeless encampment had spread into a vacant two story commercial building, threatening two additional occupied business structures to the north.

Though portions of the fire building and threatened structures were initially believed partially residential, they proved to all have been businesses.



With an aggressive effort to curtail the flames underway and additional firefighting resources en route, the first arriving LAFD crews forcibly breached the perimeter of the well-secured fire building to assure no one was trapped inside the heat- and smoke-charged structure.

Determining no one to be in peril within the 6,952 square-foot building, and noting evidence of structural compromise and fire through the roof, a swift and well-coordinated transition was made to external defensive operations, to deploy large volumes of water via handheld hose lines and elevated hose streams atop aerial ladders.

One hundred sixteen firefighters under the command of Assistant Chief Dean Zipperman confined the fire to the involved structure and a portion of the encampment, preventing damage to the two adjacent businesses, extinguishing the stubborn flames in 2 hours and 17 minutes.

No injuries were reported.

Though several nearby fire hydrants were readily used by LAFD responders to successfully battle the flames, one - that displayed no evidence of damage or any manner of tampering, proved to be non-functional and was reported to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power for repair. That individual hydrant's status did not exacerbate fire damage or hinder the control of flames.

The cause of the greater alarm fire remains the focus of an active LAFD investigation.

According to Surfline: More solid WNW swell Sat PM-Sun, Mon-Tue… surf finally slows late next week.

Saturday, January 15th: Building WNW swell 3-4’+ early 5-8’+ late. Offshore AM wind.
Fresh W/WNW swell (270-300+) is on the rise all day after a sluggish start. Average winter breaks are waist-chest high early as better spots get to shoulder high+. Variable to light offshore flow in the morning trends variable onshore in the afternoon with most spots nice and clean as new W/WNW swell builds.

Sunday, January 16th: Holding WNW swell 4-6’ good breaks, standouts 8’+. Light wind.
W/WNW swell (270-300+) holds solid through the morning then eases a touch late. Average winter breaks are in chest-head high+ waves as good winter breaks go 1-2′ overhead. Variable to light offshore flow in the morning trends variable onshore in the afternoon with most spots nice and clean as the tide drops in the afternoon.


Mike, aka German in Venice, vlogs about daily life in Venice Beach, and the nearby communities.

"I found a really nice rollerskating video on my hard drive that I recorded last year before the pandemic. It was the first annual rollerskating party in Venice Beach. Lots of people showed up on the rollerskates, it was a great dance party."

If you would like to support German in Venice with some gas money or you want to buy him a coffee, you are welcome to donate to his paypal account: https://paypal.me/germaninvenice


While the Homeless Encampment Fire was burning the Venice Boardwalk on Wednesday morning, some guy drove his mini van on the sand near the Venice pier. According to Glenice Venice, captured it on his Instagram Story, the not so intelligent dude drove pretty far before he got stuck, but he was eventually pulled out, then went and just parked in the lot.



Photos via Glenice Venice
In our story about Aftermath Of The Venice Boardwalk Fire, we stated that people reported the fire hydrants near the fire were not working. Here's a photo showing the fire fighters had to go and find working hydrants run hoses to them.


Photo via @VeniceIntel


Mike, aka German in Venice, vlogs about daily life in Venice Beach, and the nearby communities.

"There was a big fire today on Venice Beach. One of the homeless encampment tents caught on fire and burns down a two story building. I recorded the aftermath of the distraction. A big shout out to Venice Beach firefighters, they did an awesome job."

If you would like to support German in Venice with some gas money or you want to buy him a coffee, you are welcome to donate to his paypal account: https://paypal.me/germaninvenice


From the National Weather Service Los Angeles:

Still seeing high surf, especially for the Central Coast! Things should calm down later Thursday before the next swell moves in for the weekend. BE SAFE by staying off rocks and jetties! !



The LA Fire Dept has released a statement on Wenesday morning's fire on the Venice Boardwalk that started in a hmeless encampments and spread to the vacant building.

"116 LAFD firefighters took 2 hrs 17 min in largely defensive firefighting operations to extinguish active flame in a 68 year-old, two-story, 6,952 square-foot commercial structure that was vacant when an outside fire at a homeless encampment on the south side of the building extended into the structure - and briefly threatened, but was prevented from damaging 2 nearby structures. Any contents within the heavily damaged and now unstable fire building have yet to be identified. No injuries reported. LAFD Investigators are now at scene of what is considered an active investigation."

6 aerial ladder trucks were used to fight this Greater Alarm Fire" (a term which means a fire with more than 6 but less than 16 fire companies assigned to fight it).

Reports from witnesses say that the roof of the building collapsed.

Several sources have stated that the nearby "fire hydrants on Ocean Front Walk were dry" and "had been turned off to prevent tampering".




Photos by Allan Parsons




Photos by Anton Lopyrev






Photos by Brendan James


Photos by Lola Rose

Subscribe to: Posts ( Atom )