LAFD to take seven fire companies off the daily roster
22 companies out each day
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Los Angeles Fire Department will further reduce staffing to help save money.
Chief Millage Peaks said he would take seven fire companies off the daily roster, meaning that 22 of the department's 153 companies will be out of service each day on a rotating basis, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The staffing reduction should help Peaks cut a $30 million budget deficit in a way that does not put public safety at rist.
But union boss Pat McOsker, president of United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, said he was troubled by the idea, warning that it would lead to delayed responses and "preventable deaths."
"During high-incident episodes there will be fire station districts with no fire companies in them, meaning whole neighborhoods will go unprotected," he wrote in an e-mail.
When the new fiscal year starts July 1, the city will be facing a $350 million deficit, and the mayor could call on Peaks for further staffing reductions.
A company, in LAFD vernacular, can be a four-person fire engine, or a six-person hook-and-ladder truck accompanied by a pump vehicle.
The fire department has imposed furloughs, offered early retirement to veteran employees and put in place a staffing plan that has scaled back the number of engine companies by 15 on any given day.
Staff assistants, who act as drivers and secretaries to high-ranking firefighters, could be reassigned next.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—The Los Angeles County Democratic Party endorsed Assemblyman Warren Furutani for the 15th District City Council seat vacated by Janice Hahn.
Furutani “has led the fight for quality schools, better job training programs and healthier neighborhoods,” county party chair Eric Bauman said in a statement released by Furutani’s campaign.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Authorities urged Southlanders to be diligent in preparing for emergencies, as the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack approaches.
“September is National Preparedness Month, which was founded after 9/11 to increase preparedness in the United States,” Erik Scott of the Los Angeles Fire Department said.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—A newborn Christmas package nicknamed Noel was dropped off at a Los Angeles fire station on Christmas Eve.
Firefighters at Station 46, in a hard-luck section of the city just south of Exposition Park, said a 27-year old woman walked into their station house Friday afternoon, gave them her six-hour-old daughter, and directed that the child be placed for adoption.
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Burning gift wrap and other highly flammable holiday trash in residential fireplaces is dangerous and it can be deadly, the Los Angeles Fire Department warned residents today.
Most fireplaces are designed to use natural gas or dry firewood to support small, decorative fires that enhance ambience, Brian Humphrey of the LAFD said.
Nov. 19, 2010, marked the 115th year anniversary of the death of Sam Haskins, the city’s first firefighter killed in the line of duty. Haskins’ sacrifice was forgotten for more than a century and not included in the line-of-duty deaths until 2002, when the details of his life resurfaced.
Haskins was a former slave born in Virginia in Feb. 1846. In 1880, 15 years after the Civil War, Haskins, then a free man, made the cross-country journey to Los Angeles. He was joined by former slave and good friend George Warner.
