Mayor Backs Plan to Trim Ambulance Responses

Mayor Tom Bradley declared his support Friday for a controversial $7.1-million Fire Department budget proposal for 1990-91 aimed at improving ambulance response times in Los Angeles by having firefighters replace paramedics on emergency calls that do not involve life-threatening situations.

The plan, backed earlier by the City Fire Commission, would fund the purchase of seven new ambulances and the hiring of 40 firefighters and 20 supervisors and support staff members, with the goal of lowering the average citywide response time to eight minutes for heart victims and others in life-or-death situations.

Fred Hurtado, president of United Paramedics of Los Angeles, criticized the proposal. He said that it would provide residents with less service because firefighters would not have the same emergency medical training as the city’s 450 paramedics.