Redondo Beach About Town
Redondo Beach employees Alfonso Macias and Tyler Williams, and Public Safety Commission Chair Julian Stern. Photo courtesy Sandy Marchese
Public Works staff honored for stopping fire
Redondo Beach Public Works staffers Alfonso Macias and Tyler Williams were commended at the Monday, July 16 Public Safety Commission for quickly quashing a small fire at the Redondo Pier.
It was late on Sunday, May 6, when Macias and Williams smelled smoke near Old Tony’s, at the Redondo Pier. After searching atop buildings and below the pier walkways, the pair found the fire in a small planter, between buildings.
Macias and Williams put out the fire with water, then shoveled and saturated it to suffocate residual embers.
“We appreciate the recognition, and we’ll just continue to do our job,” Macias said. “We love coming back to our job, and it feels good to say we work for the city.”
“The crew we have, it’s like a brotherhood,” Williams said. “It makes coming to work fun.”
Citizen lifesaver recognized
Molly and Dave Ott were near their home’s driveway by Redondo Union High School on Feb. 9, when they noticed a man, face down, on the sidewalk.
Bernard Reina was walking down the road to surprise his daughter, an RUHS softball player, with a protein shake, when he suffered a cardiac arrest.
“All I can remember was getting out of my car, walking 20 steps, and then blacking out,” Reina said.
“We both jumped out of the car,” Dave Ott said. “I thought it was a kid, found out it was a man, and Molly just started.”
Molly Ott, a flight attendant with United Airlines, finally put her 28 years of CPR training to work, giving chest compressions, while Dave called 911 and a nearby mailman cheered and offered support.
“I had never used it before, on the plane or anywhere,” Molly said. “I was just doing what I’m trained to do.”
Firefighters responded within minutes, and at the July 17 Redondo Beach City Council meeting, Ott was credited with saving Reina’s life.
“Without your intervention, we can’t know what the overall outcome would be, but we can be certain it wouldn’t be as good as it is today,” said Redondo Beach Fire Chief Robert Metzger.
Since that day, the Reina and Ott families have remained close.
“Everyone should have CPR training,” Molly Ott said. “It’s important to have because heart attacks just happen.”