April 16--Facing criticism for his department's slow response time to emergency calls, Los Angeles Fire Chief Brian Cummings will propose a six-month pilot program on Tuesday to the city Fire Commission that would add 11 ambulances in the busiest areas of the city, including at least five in the San Fernando Valley.
But the plan by Cummings drew an immediate attack from both the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City and the Chief Officers Association, who said they are concerned the proposal to take a total of 22 personnel from the light forces (smaller stations) and task forces (stations with bigger staffs) could endanger firefighters.
"We tried this before and it didn't work," UFLAC President Frank Lima said. "What the chief is proposing is like robbing Peter to pay Paul. We support adding more ambulances, but we need to do it with additional staffing."
Under his proposal, Cummings will add the 11 ambulances to fire stations where there are the highest number of calls.
"To staff those, he will need to take one body off 11 light forces and 11 off task forces to staff those ambulances," said Battalion Chief Armando Hogan. "This is based on where the most of our calls are coming from."
The new configuration will also allow the department to deal with one of the top inquiries it receives on why it also sends fire trucks to respond to medical emergencies. It has been done to assist paramedics, but
the new system will allow them to send two ambulances in some cases.
"The fire chief doesn't want to do this, but 85 percent of the calls we receive are medical emergency," Hogan said. "The bigger thing it will do is keep our advanced life support ambulances more ready to respond to serious calls."
A final determination on which stations will receive the ambulances is to be announced today, but Hogan said "about half of those" will be designated for the San Fernando Valley.
Cummings is presenting the proposal to the Fire Commission, but he believes he does not need the panel's approval for a staffing decision.
He also has briefed Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and City Council members.
Hogan said it is believed the plan will help reduce response times, but that will not be fully known until the program begins, sometime in May.
Lima said a similar reduction in staffing was ordered under former Mayor Richard Riordan, but reversed under former Mayor James Hahn.
"We are already cut to the bone," Lima said. "This will just make it more dangerous for firefighters by taking one person away from fighting fires.
"The LAFD has been hit with budget cuts more than any other department in the city. To make it less safe for us means increasing the risk to my members and we can't stand by and let that happen."
Lima said Cummings has told him he does not believe it is a meet-and-confer issue subject to union negotiations, but they will press to try to require discussions with the department.
In a joint statement with UFLAC, the Command Officers Association said the change will put both firefighters and the public at increased risk.
"Our Fire Department has hit rock bottom and needs to start moving forward, not backwards," the statement said.
Villaraigosa and the City Council have pledged to restore some funding to the LAFD this coming year, but the exact amount will not be known until Friday when the mayor releases his budget plan.
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