Firefighters Find That 15 Is a Crowd

The men at Los Angeles County Fire Station 73 in Santa Clarita are a close-knit group.

Too close.

The problem: A new firehouse--dubbed Station 124--was supposed to open May 1 west of the Golden State Freeway on Pico Canyon Road. The station isn’t ready yet, so the men of Station 124 have moved in with the regular crew at Station 73 on San Fernando Road and will be there for at least two more months.

It’s a tight squeeze. The 15 firefighters share two showers, two toilets and three sinks.

“We’re all sort of bumping into each other,” said Engineer Tom Brady of Station 124.

“We’re crowded,” said Capt. Jim Jordan of Station 73.

Station 73 normally houses 12 men. To accommodate the six-man crew of Station 124, the Fire Department sent one of Station 73’s two engines to another station in town because “there’s no room for the engine or the three guys on it,” Jordan said.

Technically, Station 124 and Station 73 are operating as independent entities, each responding to calls in separate areas. They park their vehicles back-to-back, one crew speeding out the rear of the station, the other rushing out the front.

Capt. Larry Wild of Station 124 said a temporary facility--two trailers and a work bay--is being prepared for his station, which will serve new housing tracts west of the freeway. The trailers, on Pico Canyon Road, eventually will be replaced by a permanent building, Wild said.

Brady, who was transferred to Station 124 in a recent promotion, said other firefighters eligible for his job declined the post because they knew it meant living in trailers and doubling up in Station 73.

“Most of the county turned it down,” he said.

The biggest inconvenience, firefighters agreed, has been the five bunk beds stuffed into the sleeping quarters to make room for extra lockers. Paramedics generally grab the lower bunks on the theory they will have to hop out of bed more often during the night, Wild said.

For men who have not slept in bunk beds since childhood, the beds take some adjustment.

Firefighter Eric Minlschmidt recalled the first night he slept in one of the lower berths. He heard a rumble, felt the bed shake and sat up in bed.

“I thought that it was an earthquake,” he said.

It was the man above him getting out of bed.

The men generally compete for the coveted lower berths on a first-come, first-served basis, Wild said.

Except for captains. They are guaranteed single beds.

“Rank,” Wild observed, “has its privileges.”