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Sep. 3rd, 2005 05:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
holytoastr(AP): Fire broke out in the Saks Fifth Avenue store in the Canal Place shopping center in downtown New Orleans on Saturday, and firefighters brought in tanker trucks of water to keep it under control.
No other water pressure was available because of Hurricane Katrina, but Fire District Chief Donald Schulz said the blaze was contained after several hours. Cause was not known.
"All I can tell you is people ran out of the building as we went in," Schulz said.
Asked if he thought they deliberately set it afire, Schulz said, "They weren't sales clerks."
Firefighters had to cut through a window to get in.
Several fires have been an added aggravation during the ordeal that followed Monday's devastating hurricane which has forced an evacuation of the entire city.
One fire Friday destroyed a four-story residence building diagonally across the wide Canal Street from the shopping center.
"This district seems to have had more fires than any since the hurricane," Schulz said.
Another, bigger fire also broke out Friday with a thunderous explosion in a warehouse downriver from the French Quarter and continued to burn late Saturday.
A towering column of billowing smoke hung over the fire, which had spread along the row of warehouses.
Terry Ebbert, city em emergency operations director, downplayed the danger.
"It's not serious. It's not a toxic chemical. It's pretty well confined," he said.
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interdictor's journal: The Riverwalk may be on fire (shopping mall at the river at end of CBD/Quarter). Everytime we talk to the police, we hear about sniper fire at the fire scenes. I cannot confirm that there is any. This is all hearsay, but it's coming from the police. The police we talk to, while consistent about claiming there is sniper fire, are conflicted about whether it's police sniper fire trying to take out arsonists or criminal sniper fire trying to take out police and fire rescue teams. Again, this is rumor for now, but we're hearing a lot of this rumor.
Now this is something that requires tact, and I do not have much experience with reporting, but I think the world needs to know how overwhelmed the police are out here: I have reports from 3 different police sources that 2 police officers have committed suicide. Out of respect for their families, I will not name them or go into detail. Truly tragic how bad things are. I sincerely hope I did the right thing in reporting this.
Also, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, James Lee Witt, joined the Louisiana government Saturday to help direct the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. James Lee Witt, who ran FEMA from 1993 to 2001, said he will stay as long as he as needed.
There are only a few people here and there in the Convention Center area now, according to reports. They have begun to clean up the bodies, which have been sitting there in the sun all week.
No other water pressure was available because of Hurricane Katrina, but Fire District Chief Donald Schulz said the blaze was contained after several hours. Cause was not known.
"All I can tell you is people ran out of the building as we went in," Schulz said.
Asked if he thought they deliberately set it afire, Schulz said, "They weren't sales clerks."
Firefighters had to cut through a window to get in.
Several fires have been an added aggravation during the ordeal that followed Monday's devastating hurricane which has forced an evacuation of the entire city.
One fire Friday destroyed a four-story residence building diagonally across the wide Canal Street from the shopping center.
"This district seems to have had more fires than any since the hurricane," Schulz said.
Another, bigger fire also broke out Friday with a thunderous explosion in a warehouse downriver from the French Quarter and continued to burn late Saturday.
A towering column of billowing smoke hung over the fire, which had spread along the row of warehouses.
Terry Ebbert, city em emergency operations director, downplayed the danger.
"It's not serious. It's not a toxic chemical. It's pretty well confined," he said.
From
interdictor's journal: The Riverwalk may be on fire (shopping mall at the river at end of CBD/Quarter). Everytime we talk to the police, we hear about sniper fire at the fire scenes. I cannot confirm that there is any. This is all hearsay, but it's coming from the police. The police we talk to, while consistent about claiming there is sniper fire, are conflicted about whether it's police sniper fire trying to take out arsonists or criminal sniper fire trying to take out police and fire rescue teams. Again, this is rumor for now, but we're hearing a lot of this rumor.Now this is something that requires tact, and I do not have much experience with reporting, but I think the world needs to know how overwhelmed the police are out here: I have reports from 3 different police sources that 2 police officers have committed suicide. Out of respect for their families, I will not name them or go into detail. Truly tragic how bad things are. I sincerely hope I did the right thing in reporting this.
Also, the former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, James Lee Witt, joined the Louisiana government Saturday to help direct the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. James Lee Witt, who ran FEMA from 1993 to 2001, said he will stay as long as he as needed.
There are only a few people here and there in the Convention Center area now, according to reports. They have begun to clean up the bodies, which have been sitting there in the sun all week.
