Calabasas Residents Protest Firefighting Cuts

Residents of an isolated Calabasas neighborhood have protested a Los Angeles County budget cutback that has temporarily slashed local fire protection and left their community’s fire station occasionally unmanned.

Half of the six-man firefighting crew normally assigned to operate two engines from Fire Station No. 125 on Las Virgenes Road north of the Ventura Freeway was transferred out of the area last week in a budget cut aimed at saving the county Fire Department $1.4 million.

But the station has been left empty of firefighters almost daily since then, because its three remaining firefighters have been sent elsewhere to fill in for scattered engine companies participating in mandatory fire drills.

“It’s making us all very nervous. They’ve put us in a dangerous situation,” said Joe Austin, who lives in the 600-home Malibu Canyon Park subdivision next to the station.

Austin’s neighborhood is no stranger to fire emergencies. During Calabasas’ last major brush fire three years ago, two of his neighbors’ homes burned to the ground and eight residences were damaged.

County fire officials said the cuts are expected to last four months. They said reassigned firefighters will be used to fill positions normally staffed by firefighters working overtime. No jobs are being lost.

But the officials confirmed the cutback is the most drastic ever by their agency. It has reduced staffing at stations in Topanga Canyon, Sylmar, Newhall and five other communities besides Calabasas.

Staffing has been reduced at four of the stations that had each been staffed with two engine companies. A one-engine station at Olive View Hospital in Sylmar has been temporarily closed. The other cuts include the removal of one-man water tanker or patrol units from Newhall, Topanga Canyon and four other areas.

Timing Was Deliberate

“We’ve tried to do this on a responsible basis,” Assistant Fire Chief Jim Hunt said of the cutback. “We figured the most responsible thing to do was wait until the brush fire hazard was down.

“We’re not enthused about having to do this. But we have to share the cost of curtailment as a result of the shortfall in the county budget. I don’t see it getting any better.”

Met With Leaders

Responding to protests by the homeowners to county officials, Calabasas-area fire Battalion Chief Robert Ericson met with leaders of the Malibu Canyon Park Homeowners Assn. last week to assure them the cutbacks are only temporary.

But Phil Ramuno, president of the homeowners’ group, said his neighbors worry that the manpower reduction may last longer than planned.

“Very often a temporary measure becomes permanent,” Ramuno said. “We’ve been told that, at any given time, any of the county fire stations might be unmanned. This is a cut that all communities should be concerned about.”

Ironically, the cutback came only two weeks after Ramuno’s group won a three-year campaign, launched after the disastrous 1982 Calabasas fire, to improve water pressure in their community.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District has agreed to share with a developer the $80,000 cost of a new pumping system. The upgrade will boost fire hydrant flow from 800 gallons per minute to about 1,250 gallons.

Lack of water during the 1982 brush fire was blamed for the destruction of two hilltop homes on Farmfield Road and damage to others--including Ramuno’s. Water pressure failed when a utility company truck backed into a fire hydrant at the bottom of the hill, shearing it and draining the water line.

Jim Casey, whose $200,000 house was one of those destroyed, said Saturday he does not blame the Fire Department for his loss--or for the current cutbacks. He said firefighters were at his side in 1982 when the water pressure failed and his house burst into flames.

“I think the Fire Department is doing what it can. Our trouble is with the Board of Supervisors,” which writes the county budget, Casey said as he stood on the front porch of his rebuilt home.

Casey’s home is about 8 1/2 minutes from another county fire station on Calabasas Road and 10 minutes from a county station on Cornell Road in Agoura. The stations have one truck company each.

In case of a fire in the neighborhood while Station 125 is unmanned, two paramedics who operate a rescue squad from Station 125 will respond, officials said. The rescue truck, however, does not carry water.