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By Jorge Casuso
June 9 -- It’s late Wednesday morning and Fire Marshal
Jim Glew is looking for the blurred black line barely visible along
Arizona Avenue. If you didn’t know it was there, you’d
likely never see it, but it’s a demarcation as stark as any
physical boundary.
Between the line and the curb is a long row of tented tables that
line the street, on the other a flock of Farmers Market shoppers
checking produce, forking over cash, tasting sample fruit.
Glew likes to point out the line, matched by another one running
parallel just 12 feet away.
The space between the two is wide enough to allow pedestrians to
stroll comfortably in each direction, wide enough for emergency
vehicles to get through.
“We can attain public safety without being intrusive,”
Glew says with a New York accent he’s retained after 19 years
on the coast. “That’s the blend we want to achieve.”
That’s Glew’s mantra, the philosophy of the man who
makes sure, among other duties, that Santa Monica is safe from potential
hazards. As Fire Marshal, Glew and his team of eight inspectors
are in charge of everything from “daycares to high rises,”
from emptying overcrowded bars to assuring film shoots follow the
City’s safety script.
Before he walks the Farmers Market, Glew confers with a Bayside
official. It seems a film crew set to shoot the following day has
been trying to skirt the regulations and possibly film at a local
business without a permit.
For Glew, it’s a clear-cut case. “If they don’t
comply with the City requirement, they will be shut down by police,”
he says.
But not all decisions are so black and white. Shortly after noon,
as the Farmers Market is winding down, Glew’s team receives
reports that three Downtown bars are “grossly overcrowded.”
The reports are true. Soccer fans have squeezed into the bars, filling
them far beyond the legal capacity. It’s Glew’s call.
Instead of emptying the bars, Glew chooses to post the inspectors
on standby and monitor the situation for another half hour while
the game plays out. Afterwards, they fine the establishments $750
each for the violations. The decision, Glew explains, is based on
his bottom line – public safety.
“If we tried to clear out the bars, we’d have fights
and create a hazardous public safety situation,” Glew says.
“They’d been partying for two hours. I told my staff,
‘Leave them where they are, otherwise you’ll have a
Donnybrook.”
While Glew’s team must insure all of Santa Monica is safe
from potential safety hazards, the Third Street Promenade, along
with the Pier, is a big part of his beat.
“Our biggest fear is having a situation on the Promenade where
there are large crowds during a fire,” says Glew, who has
been with the department ten years, the last four as Fire Marshal.
Although some of the old buildings still don’t have sprinklers,
the strip is well maintained and has no blighted storefronts that
pose a danger. Street performers are also not allowed to throw flames
or juggle chainsaws.
But there are smaller, less visible hazards lurking in everyday
corners. Take your typical five-pound propane tank, the one used
for backyard barbecues and cooking at special outdoor events on
the Promenade.
“A five-pound propane tank will level a three-story building
if it’s in the basement and leaks and finds an ignition source,”
Glew says. “They have to be ten feet from the cooking area.”
That’s why when they’re not in use Glew makes sure the
tanks are safely chained outdoors behind the buildings. But in keeping
with his philosophy, Glew isn’t heavy handed with inspections.
“We’re our brother’s keeper, but we want them
to be responsible,” Glew says. “We don’t like
to cite. We like to educate, engineer, then enforce.”
Glew caught the fire-fighting bug when he was a kid growing up on
Long Island, rooting for the Mets and hanging out Sundays at the
firehouse, where his father was a volunteer firefighter for 40 years.
“I kind of got the bug,” says Glew, who’s been
a professional firefighter since 1980. “Fire fighting is a
camaraderie of career people. It’s not a nine to five. It’s
a great brotherhood of men and women who have safety in mind all
the time.”
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