We pass whole blocks in flames, some burned down to ash. People have cracked open fire hydrants to help put out the fires. Burned corpses hang half out of windows, dead before they could escape.

I look out on San Pedro Street as we speed by. Skid Row. Over five thousand homeless living in this four square mile area, not to mention all the people living in lofts or working to support the homeless.

It’s nothing but a tunnel of flames, as both sides of the street as far south as I can see burn bright and high. Occasional blue flames lick up from the blaze. Xiuhtecuhtli’s fire still has some life left in it.

I was probably unconscious when people started to die out here and didn’t feel it, but I can feel a fuck-ton of new Haunts and Wanderers down that street now. Will it tip the balance? Will we have another Kowloon in L.A.? I hope not, but I’m not inclined to hang out down there. Still, when all this is said and done, I’m going to have to see how it is.

We stay on Third, the Crown Vic trying hard to keep her in sight. We start to merge with Fourth and I figure she’s going to keep going across the bridge and hit the 101. But she makes a hard right on Central.

As Letitia cranks the wheel I can see why. The rest of Fourth is an inferno. I can see the Fourth Street Bridge engulfed in blue and orange flames, buckling under the heat. As it goes out of sight I hear it collapse behind us, a massive crash of cement, rebar, and history.

All along Central it’s the same scene. Burning buildings, people desperate to put out the flames. Some buildings untouched, but many, hell, most of them are nothing but ash and skeletons of charred wood or steel.

“I think she’s gonna hit the freeway,” Letitia says.

“Isn’t that gonna be gridlocked?” We’ve seen surprisingly little traffic so far besides the occasional emergency vehicle on a side street. Letitia’s calls for backup are too low a priority to get any sort of traction. The rest of the police are helping to put out fires, assisting with rescue efforts.

“Maybe,” she says, “but with all this going on I think it’s a good chance that anybody still driving up there is either trying to get home, or parked on the side watching shit happen. Folks did that during the Northridge quake. Parked their cars and watched buildings go down, transformers explode.”

I remember that. I was driving on the 405 at the time. Even after the shaking stopped the freeways stayed mostly clear. People were either frozen in place panicking behind the wheel or pulled over to the side and out of their cars.