Pants on Fire

Thoughout the day, I've been watching television coverage of the fires in Los Angeles and Orange counties. Periodically they break to a news conference where fire officials (along with police officials and politicians) spend most of the time not dispensing information that would be useful to fire victims and the rest of the citizenry; rather, they pat themselves and their cohorts on the back about what a great job they're doing and what selfless heroes they are.

Many of them are selfless heroes, and we don't need them to point it out. Some are not.

For much of the past hour, KCAL 9 has been showing a fully engulfed home west of San Antonio Road in Yorba Linda. Every once in a while they'd pan to one side and you could see a man in uniform spraying down a roof with a garden hose. He looks like a police officer, and he's not wearing any protective equipment. What a gallant man.

A few minutes later they pan further to the side, and there's a CHP cruiser in the driveway. Hmmm, that's odd. Moments ago, the on-scene reporter told the rest of the story: The guy is a CHP officer who came back to save his own home.

You should know that virtually all law enforcement and fire personnel in the area are on duty today. The CHP is heavily involved in traffic control. (At various times today, the I-5, I-210, I-405, 14, 118, 91, and 57 freeways have been closed.) So this guy abandons his post, takes his state vehicle, and heads back to The OC (using his law enforcement credentials to get through blockades that keep all other residents out of the evacuated areas) to save his own house. I certainly understand his motivation--many of the tens of thousands (yes, really) evacuated residents would've liked to do the same thing--but please stop telling me he's a hero.

Zeke, the comment section is now open for you to pile on.