657 Flower on fire again for 3rd time at 545am, Tuesaday 10/25. Neighbors say it’s a squatters drug den with vagrants going in and out all day and night. It burns again with 10+ fire trucks and 30 foot flames.

Surfing big waves at the Venice Pier on October 23, 2022

A walking tour through Venice, California - one of the communities that has been hardest hit from the homeless crisis. The host takes us through what it's like to live in a neighborhood that has been overrun by crime and chaos.

The Los Angeles Fire Department responded by ground and air, working with units from the nearby Santa Monica Fire Department, to quickly confine and extinguish a fire that consumed two acres of heavy brush on a steep hillside near the 15000 block of Corona del Mar on October 16, 2022.

Photos via LAFD

A tow truck removes a wrecked car from the sand in Pacific Palisades, then drives all the way down the bike path to the Santa Monica Pier, instead of using one of the many exit points, including the one where he picked up the wrecked car, he decided to go on the scenic route.

SMFD testing the fire engine hoses at Ocean Park in Santa Monica.

Avoid Ocean Water Near Ballona Creek

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has issued a beach closure due to sewage discharge affecting the following areas:

Ballona Creek (100 yards in each direction)

Beach closure signs have been posted.

The closure is due to a sewage spill in the street near 4545 W 62nd St., LA 90043, where approximately 1,200 gallons of sewage discharged onto the street with 500 gallons recovered and 700 gallons entering the storm drain. The sewage then entered Centinela Creek, which discharges into Ballona Creek.

Public Health was notified of the spill today at approximately 1:00 PM. At 4:00 PM, the Public Health Environmental Health Strike Team confirmed that there was flow in Centinela Creek that would then discharge into the ocean.

Due to the inability to submit samples to the lab on Sunday, sampling will begin on Monday and two consecutive samples are required to reopen the beach.

Recorded information on beach conditions is available 24 hours a day on the County's beach closure hotline: 1-800-525-5662.

Santa Monica Police and Fire Department aid a very sick homeless man at Palisades Park.

From Santa Monica Close Up:

"City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works sanitation workers in white hazardous materials suits, with Clean Harbors Hazardous Waste Management and Action Cleanup Environmental Services clean-up homeless encampments at Venice Beach on Friday, October 21, 2022."

Santa Monica Close Up is a photo blog by Santa Monica based Photojournalist/Press photographer Fabian Lewkowicz. Fabian is the former staff photographer for the Santa Monica Daily Observer Press, Santa Monica Mirror, Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Corsair.

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