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Health & Fitness

Blog: LAFD Cuts Have Left Echo Park & Silver Lake Vulnerable

Letter sent to LAFD Chief Brian Cummings on September 20. To date, I have received no response. www.MitchforCityCouncil.org FB: Mitch O'Farrell Twitter: @MitchOFarrell

September 20, 2012

Chief Brian Cummings
Los Angeles Fire Department 200 North Spring St., 16th Floor Los Angeles, CA 90012

Dear Chief Cummings:

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The men and women that make up the Los Angeles Fire Department are the most prepared, experienced professionals in the business. As a staffer for Councilmember Eric Garcetti for nearly ten years, I personally observed their bravery, their discipline, and fearlessness in responding to various life threatening emergencies.

It is in support and respect for the men and women in the department that I write today, urging you to take immediate action in providing an adequate number of personnel, especially to the “high fire zone” communities of Echo Park and Silver Lake in the 13th City Council District. The difficult to navigate, steep, winding, narrow, substandard hillside streets in these two communities, and the reduced staff at Fire Station 20, that primarily services these areas are cause for concern. The loss of 4 first responders per shift at Fire Station 20, combined with heavy reductions at nearby Fire Stations 1, 16, 35, 42, 47, and 50, also put the surrounding communities of Elysian Valley, Glassell Park, and other Northeast neighborhoods at greater risk of delayed response times for medical and fire emergencies. The result is that the personnel at these 7 Stations are often overworked and over stressed due to a heavier burden that is placed on them as a result of the staff reductions. It is also alarming that there are only 4 paramedic ambulances available for transportation in the entire area I am referring to and sometimes, those ambulances are stationed elsewhere.

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These 7 Fire Stations have lost a total of 26 emergency personnel per shift, an average of 4 per station. In addition to firefighters, the loss of personnel includes specially trained hook & ladder drivers, paramedics, engineers, and basic EMT’s. Not everyone is certified to drive the 54’ long, 30-­‐ton hook and ladder, and not every location has a certified paramedic. Also, first responders at each station become intimately familiar with the topography, the terrain and the best way to navigate challenging streets in case of an emergency. When other Stations have to respond because the home team is deployed elsewhere (which happens frequently), it invariably leads to delayed response times, placing a greater risk to residents and our men and women who are there to help. Delayed response times for emergencies are unacceptable when they can be prevented and in this case, they can. Some engines are equipped with special extrication tools that can quickly open up a hole in the roof of a burning structure, which is often necessary within minutes of receiving a call. If such an engine is not available because of deployment outside the area, another engine from a distant station is called in and arrives several minutes later, sometimes too late to utilize their specialized equipment, depending on the magnitude of the fire.

The total reductions of the 114 Fire Stations citywide are 106 per shift. These 7 Fire Stations are .06% of the 114 total, and yet they account for 24.5% of the citywide reductions. These are the very stations service the officially designated “hire fire zone” neighborhoods across Echo Park, Silver Lake and much of Northeast Los Angeles.

I am aware of the sacrifices that the LAFD and most city departments made due to our devastating city budget deficit. I am not against shared sacrifice in these tough economic times. What I do take strong exception to is the decision making in relation to leaving these neighborhoods unnecessarily vulnerable to the emergencies and fire danger that they live with every day. The 13th City Council District and Northeast Los Angeles deserve the same level of protection and attention enjoyed by other parts of the city.

Again, I respectfully request immediate action to mitigate this urgent matter by modifying the severe reductions among these 7 stations. You can do this by carefully balancing the losses across the system more equitably. As we move into the traditional “fire season” months, there has never been a better time to act than now.

Sincerely,

Mitch O’Farrell
Candidate for Los Angeles City Council, 13th District

Cc: The Honorable Antonio Villaraigosa, Mayor of Los Angeles 

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