Train Wreck

CITY HALL Council shoots down temporary library location The Glendale City Council rejected a plan 3 to 2 to put an interim library in a historical building in Adams Square. A library is still needed in southeast Glendale, but a building on the corner of Chevy Chase Drive and Adams Street was better suited for a retail store or restaurant, a majority of council members decided. Staff members had recommended using the location for a temporary library while the city works on plans to build a permanent one. The City Council also rejected all bids for a storm culvert repair project on Dunsmere Road, and has authorized staff members to seek bids for an alternative repair project.

Jackson Bell An arson investigator testified Wednesday that the massive blaze that erupted during a Jan. 26 Metrolink crash came from gasoline splashed all over Juan Manuel Alvarez's Jeep. Alvarez is charged with arson and 11 counts of murder with special circumstances for allegedly causing the three-train wreck that killed 11 people and injured nearly 200 more. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William R. Pounders heard a second day of testimony Wednesday in the preliminary hearing for the 25-year-old Compton man accused of causing the Glendale derailment.

Jackson Bell A Glendale city worker told a judge Tuesday that he saw Juan Manuel Alvarez douse his jeep with a liquid before parking it on the train tracks the morning of Jan. 26. Alvarez is accused of causing the train derailment that killed 11 and left nearly 200 injured. His preliminary trial began Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court. "He was holding the bottle with his right hand and shaking it on the truck," said Douglas Ross, a Public Works Integrated Waste Management employee.

Jackson Bell The widow of a sheriff's deputy killed in January's Metrolink derailment filed a lawsuit Monday against the transit agency, claiming her husband might still be alive if the locomotive hadn't been pushing the train from behind. The lawsuit, the first since the derailment, was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court by Rita May Tutino, wife of Deputy James Tutino. "For at least five or 10 years, the Federal Railroad Administration and others have said that pulling a commuter line is far, far more appropriate, and far, far more safe.

Rosette Gonzales Mark Austin wanted to find out more about becoming a Red Cross volunteer, so he attended the Glendale-Crescenta Valley chapter's orientation meeting to familiarize himself with the organization. He was filling out his application when word of a raging brush fire came in. "[The director of emergency services] walked out of his office and said 'OK, we have a brush fire. Who can go right now?'" Austin said. "And I raised my hand."

Robert Chacon Juan Manuel Alvarez was driving to his first day at a new construction job when months of troubling behavior culminated in an attempt to commit suicide by parking his SUV in the path of an oncoming Metrolink train, family members said Tuesday. Alvarez, accused of causing a three-train crash that killed 11 and injured nearly 200 on Jan. 26, pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court Tuesday to 11 counts of murder with special circumstances.

Josh Kleinbaum When Brian Halloran heard about the early-morning, three-train crash in Glendale Jan. 26, he didn't waste time. Halloran, a broadcast associate for Glendale's government access television station, drove to City Hall to grab a video camera and then made his way to the scene of the wreck. Halloran's footage was the highlight a special edition of the GTV6 police program, "Behind the Badge," which focused on the train wreck. Ten years after its first broadcast, GTV6 10 has used original programming, on-site footage and a dedicated, ambitious staff to become a community mainstay.

"To boil it down, my dollars-and-cents feeling says no, but my gut feeling is yes ... You have the funding source now. You can put [the turf] in now. You can use it now. I'm saying, 'Get what you can get now and make use of it.'" Lina Harper, Glendale Unified School District's board of education clerk. "It clearly indicated that the man was deeply touched by what he participated in and witnessed, and maybe this was the way he could show his respect, appreciation and sympathy."

Jacqui Brown The life-saving efforts by firefighters after Wednesday's deadly train crash is all in a day's work. Sorting through the wreckage, aiding victims and staying focused is what gets firefighters through, said Capt. Bill Bailey of Fire Station 22 in Glendale, the first unit to respond to the scene. "The call came over the radio as a train derailment with possible injuries," Bailey said. "We had no idea what we were going to see and we didn't know that there were three trains involved."

Tragedy should not be politicized As tragic as the train wreck was Wednesday, especially for those who lost loved ones, the biggest tragedy was having to listen to elected officials from the mayor of Glendale calling for more federal aid, Mayor Hahn of Los Angeles talking about nothing and County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who doesn't even represent the district, choose this horrible event to grandstand for the sole...