LAFD: FireBlogging for the 21st Century

I may be relatively new to Los Angeles, but I was knee deep in rss feeds upon arrival – and soon after getting in rhythm with the Metroblogging LA feed, I became aware that Brian Humphrey, spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, actively publishes the LAFD News & Information Blog.

I’m not aware of other FD blogs, though there is a “firehouse forum“, but the LAFD Blog puts an end to the “do blogs really matter?” question. The LAFD blog is not only chock full of public service safety reminders and police-report rescue911 style recaps of deadly highway wrecks… it is one of the finest and purest examples of the PURPOSE weblogs serve.

Blogs tell it like it is, and no exception here, as Mack @ LA Voice pointed to this week. LAFD has posted a video (to Social Distortion’s cover of “Ring of Fire”) that will have you running to test your smoke alarms and buy backup 9-volt batteries

You may not hear it on the radio, and the paper won’t come until morning… but after being motionless in your ride on the 405 — moreso than usual — you can find out ASAP (via rss feed to mobile, blackberry/treo, pda or surfing at home) that the fire department was responding to a man who was killed when a construction rig flipped over at LAX. Or something.

Also: LAFD on Flickr.