Los Angeles Fire Department
Board of Commissioners meeting, Sept. 2, 2003

The LA Board of Fire Commissioners held a Special Meeting on the evening of Tuesday, September 2, 2003. Numerous locals from the community attended the event, held at Fire Station 47, 4575 Huntington Drive in El Sereno. LA Community Policing was there, represented by Directors Bill Murray and Bobbie Logan.

Board members Corina Alarcon, President, Jay H. Grodin, Vice President, Louise L. Frankel and Tyrone Freeman were joined by LA's Fire Chief William R. Bamattre and quite a few members of the Department.

Click here to read the full agenda:
A G E N D A

In an age where most city departments decry their lack of funds, Fire Chief Bamattre and the LAFD have done some amazing things with the limited resources and staff at hand.

The newly elected City Councilman from District 14, Antonio Villaraigosa, gave an opening address, welcoming the Department on behalf of his constituents. He noted that many of the communities in the area featured hillside neighborhoods, areas that were prone to the hazard of a brush fire.

It was obvious from the good community turnout that there's a lot of interest in the Department. The energy at the meeting was excellent, and many topics were covered.

At the beginning of the meeting there were introductions all around.

Of special note were the members of the local Explorer Troop, young people who get an opportunity to participate in the Fire Department. Among them was a young man who'd recently returned after being deployed for military service in Iraq.

Teens participate in such programs around Los Angeles, designed to give them a taste of what it's like to be a member of the Fire Department. Many go on to become cadets.

EDITOR'S NOTE: As an aside we should mention that the LAPD has such programs, too, available at many of the local community police stations.

Chief Bamattre reported that he's pleased with the progress the Fire Department has made in several areas, notably the ability to move closer to the goal of a 5 minute response time to a call for an emergency. This is ambitious, but with continued support attainable in the next couple of years.

He also noted that all Community Fire Stations, over 100 in the city, now had Emergency Medical Service (EMS) staff. This means that paramedic coverage is city-wide, and the vast majority of Fire Stations have their own ambulance. At a minimum EMS firefighters roll with the first responding units for every call. Chief Bamattre had set this as one of his goals, as is providing an ambulance at 100% of the stations ... another ambitious goal, soon to be achieved.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Please see the EMS Deployment Report for August in the box below.

The Chief also highlighted the fact that the Fire Stations are open to the public, and welcome visits, inquiries and, perhaps most importantly, as "safe houses" for the community. In fact, all of them serve as part of the Baby Safe (also known as Safe Haven) system, whereby a mother may drop off a newborn child she can not raise.

Click here to read the LACP article:
Baby Safe Program

Recently, Chief Bamattre had joined LAPD's Assistant Chief George Gascon in a press conference that highlighted the loss of such a newborn, and the arrest of the young mother, and stressed the program which guarantees not to punish the parent, often a teenager.

Click here to read the LAPD press release:
Importance of Safe Haven Law

Chief Bamattre said the further improvements have been made in both Fire Stations and equipment upgrades, as well as in the area of recruiting, and some of his command staff gave brief explanations.

As the meeting proceeded through the agenda there were several other highlights.

The Department is quickly improving its ability to inspect and follow-up on brush clearing. Successful collection of fines have resulted in millions of dollars of income to Los Angeles. Since the brush fire season is about to begin (it lasts about four months) there's a renewed effort to get the word out about the need for public safety and awareness.

Across the area, but especially in hillside communities with narrow windy streets, the Fire Department has difficulty navigating its equipment past illegally parked cars and other obstructions blocking the way. A new program mapping the most problematic areas has been developed, and there's a new PSA (Public Service Announcement) campaign warning the public that a renewed effort to keep streets accessible will mean that vehicles blocking the right of way will be towed.

The first PSA produced was shown during the meeting, and will begin to air on television soon. The "spokesperson" is a little character in the shape of a ping-pong ball who wears a red fire hat. He admonishes a driver that his car has been parked illegally, and the vehicle is towed. If popular, the same character will be used to carry other messages in the future.

At the Fire Chief’s request, the Board discussed the need for a Request for Proposal (RFP) for improved helitanker services. In the recent past such helitankers (large helicopters capable of carrying 2,200 gallons of water in a single load) have been contracted for use during a four month period each year, meant to approximate the brush fire season.

The Board approved the Department recommendation for an RFP to select a contractor to provide these helitanker services, including full support services, year round. Not only will this continue to help in brush fire season, but it will significantly improving the city's ability to respond to large events, possibly including evacuations in the event of an emergency and the ability to airlift large amounts of equipment and / or firefighters, quickly.

Near the end of the agenda, there was a Public Comment period. Several community members spoke to the Commission, most of them transmitting local concerns.

Bill Murray spoke on behalf of LA Community Policing, promising to include more information about the Fire Department on the LACP.org website in the future.

He noted that the President of the LAPD Police Commission, David Cunningham, had recently made a request that the Police Department devise a plan to come up with a series of "Safe Places" or "Safe Zones" where community members can go if they feel threatened or are in need of assistance.

Bill pointed out that well over 100 such places already exist across LA, and in every community, in the form of each Fire House and Police Station. Both Departments have already been training their officers and promoting their facilities for just such a need. Bill suggested a coordinated campaign to educate the residents about this resource, and offered LACP's help.

Finally, he also urged the Fire Department to come up with volunteer opportunities that required less training than the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) programs, now offered around the city. CERT volunteers perform a very valuable service for the community, but are required to train extensively over a several day period and take refresher courses.

Click here to read the LACP article:
CERT Program

Several people have asked LA Community Policing if there are other volunteer opportunities within the Fire Department that don't require such intensive training, perhaps CPR and First Aid classes, or perhaps a variation on the Code Watch program, but geared toward specifically helping firefighters maintain fire-safe neighborhoods.

Click here to read the LACP article:
Code Watch Program

Bill noted that he comes from a big family that participates in volunteer fire department programs back east. About 30 of his uncles, cousins and second cousins have been involved as firefighters in the Rockville Center Fire Department on Long Island, beginning with his late father who'd been the oldest of 13 children and had joined in the 1930s.

In fact, his 85-year-old Uncle Matt is still participating as a "fire-police" volunteer, working the parimeter of fire fighting events, and had responded to over 300 calls last year!

As the meeting concluded, Chief Bamattre and the Fire Commissioners thanked the members of the public who'd attended for their obvious interest and support, and promised to continue taking these meetings out into the community.

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Here is the August Update that gives information about Emergency Medical Service Deployment Plan:

LOS ANGELES FIRE DEPARTMENT EMS RESOURCE DEPLOYMENT PLAN AUGUST 2003 UPDATE The EMS Resource Deployment Plan addresses the Fire Chiefs goals to increase paramedic coverage, improve overall EMS service delivery, and provide a better working environment through reducing workload. The EMS Resource Deployment Plan will manage the significant number of new paramedics, deployment of additional EMS resources, and expansion of EMS field supervision. The five-year plan will increase the number of paramedics and resources to meet these objectives: Paramedic resource at every fire station Ambulance at every fire station EMS Captains in every Battalion Additional Paramedic Ambulances to provide workload relief for busy units Additional Assessment Engines for paramedic personnel rotation During the first two years of the plan (2001/2002 and 2002/2003), these resource improvements were implemented: Upgraded 14 BLS Engines into Paramedic Assessment Engines Converted 6 Paramedic Engines into Paramedic Assessment Engines Added 16 new Paramedic Ambulances Added 14 new BLS Ambulances Added 2 fully staffed BLS Engine companies Added 5 more Variable Staffed BLS Ambulances for a total of 8 Added 10 more EMS Captain offices for a total of 16 On April 20, 2003, the Department successfully deployed at least one paramedic resource in every fire station district. On June 29, 2003, the Department successfully deployed EMS Captains in every Battalion to improve EMS supervision, training and management. On August 24, 2003, the following resource improvements were implemented: BLS Rescue Ambulance 903 upgraded to Paramedic Rescue Ambulance 103 at Fire Station 103 in Northridge BLS Engine 7 upgraded to Paramedic Assessment Engine 7 at Fire Station 39 in Van Nuys BLS Rescue 888 relocated as BLS Rescue 839 at Fire Station 39 in Van Nuys Effective August 24, 2003, the LAFD will have: 115 Rescue Ambulances - 73 are ALS and 42 are BLS 99 Engine Companies - 39 are ALS and 60 are BLS 49 Light Forces - 3 are ALS and 46 are BLS Further resource improvements will occur later in the fiscal year. .