Fire Dept. Pushes Air Ambulance Proposal : Trauma care: Medical helicopter would provide 24-hour response from a ridge in the Hollywood Hills. Some residents object.

Concerned about growing violence in metropolitan Los Angeles and a shrinking trauma-care network, Los Angeles city fire officials want to establish a 24-hour “air ambulance” service that would operate from a ridge above the “Hollywood” sign in the Hollywood Hills.

The plan, which would cost about $3.4 million, calls for purchasing a $2.6-million medical helicopter that would be used exclusively for emergency calls citywide. It would be the city’s first “fully dedicated” air ambulance, replacing two firefighting helicopters based in Van Nuys that are loaded with portable medical equipment for trauma flights.

Fire officials estimate a centralized air ambulance service would cut about 10 minutes from response times to trauma calls in the Central City, a change they believe would save lives. Currently, because the service is based in Van Nuys, 73% of the city’s air ambulance responses are in the San Fernando Valley, where just one-third of the population resides.

“The increasing number of major traumatic injuries occurring because of violent crime and multiple vehicle accidents, and the uncertainty of trauma center availability in the metropolitan and southern areas of the city argue for the expansion of timely air ambulance service throughout the city,” Deputy Chief C. G. Drummond wrote in a report to the city’s Board of Fire Commissioners.

Trauma responses by city helicopters have nearly tripled in recent years, from 124 in 1985 to 342 last year, according to Fire Department statistics. About half of all patients are transported to trauma centers, which have dwindled over the last several years from 23 to 13 countywide.

Officials with the county’s trauma-care network have not reviewed the city’s proposal, but one top executive said the county generally opposes using air ambulances in crowded, urban areas such as central Los Angeles. County air ambulances are used almost exclusively to transport patients from remote regions where ground transport is not available, the official said.

“There is a lot of danger associated with these helicopters,” said Virginia Price-Hastings, chief of paramedic and trauma hospital programs for the county. “You have to clear landing sites, they are big, and when they set down they kick up a lot of dust. They have been known to break windows.”

In addition, Price-Hastings said, there is little reason to believe an air ambulance would solve the county’s trauma-care woes. In fact, she said, it could make things worse.

“The remaining trauma centers can’t handle all of the trauma that could be flown in from around the county,” Price-Hastings said. “They would get so busy that they would pull out of the system, too. Helicopter utilization is not the answer to the trauma center problem. What we need to do is get more trauma centers back in the system.”

Operators of private air ambulance services at UCLA Medical Center and Memorial Medical Center in Long Beach also criticized the plan, saying their helicopters could respond to trauma calls across Los Angeles if the Fire Department requested assistance.

“This is a completely useless duplication of resources,” said Marshall Morgan, director of the UCLA MedStar program.

Fire officials point to the higher cost of private air ambulances--the average bill for patients is about 10 times what the city charges--and say the proposed city air ambulance is not intended as a cure-all for the ills of the trauma system. They defend the plan as an important step toward providing more equitable trauma care citywide.

“We need to utilize the helicopter more to get patients to a treatment center before they lose their lives,” said Assistant Chief Peter Lucarelli. “We can do that pretty well in the San Fernando Valley from Van Nuys, but we can’t do that in the rest of the city. We can cover the whole city within 10 minutes from Mt. Lee.”

The Board of Fire Commissioners has given its go-ahead for the service, and the Fire Department has received environmental clearance from the city to convert a city-owned emergency helipad on Mt. Lee into a permanent heliport with overnight facilities for pilots and paramedics. Fire officials have submitted a budget request to Mayor Tom Bradley, which he is still considering.

In addition to funding, the plan still needs approval from the state Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration, both steps fire officials described as routine. The biggest obstacle, they said, is expected to arise during discussions before the city Planning Commission, which must grant a permit for the public heliport.

A Planning Commission hearing examiner will hold a public hearing Monday on the department’s request, and some residents near the proposed heliport said they will demand a complete environmental study of the plan. If residents are unhappy with the Planning Commission’s response, they said, they will appeal to the City Council.

City Council President John Ferraro and Councilman Michael Woo, who represent the affected neighborhoods, have not taken a position on the issue. A spokesman for Bradley said the mayor is awaiting a report from the city administrative officer before taking a position.

Fire officials met with several dozen homeowners this week in an effort to allay early concerns, but most residents said--and fire officials acknowledged--the effort failed.

“There is already too much helicopter traffic--police, news, executives and sightseeing tours,” said Chuck Welch, head of the Hollywoodland Homeowners Assn.’s helicopter committee. “Anything that adds one more helicopter up there is too much.”

Michael Arth, who recently built a home beneath the “Hollywood” sign, said he looks outside his house “straight up into the blades of helicopters” flying overhead or using the emergency helipad. He said most residents closest to Mt. Lee believe the Fire Department can find a better location for a 24-hour heliport.

“Because of the hilltop location, the sound of the helicopters resonates down into the canyons,” Arth said. “If they are allowed to do this, it will be like living next to a trauma center airport.”

Fire officials said helicopters would not fly over homes most of the time because flight patterns would be set over undeveloped areas north of the 1,700-foot ridge, which already houses the city’s radio communications center. Helicopters would be diverted over nearby homes about four weeks per year, however, because of Santa Ana wind conditions, the officials said.

“If it is going to save lives, I don’t think that is too big of a sacrifice to make,” said Ann Reiss Lane, president of the city’s Fire Commission. “The people who live near the heliport don’t always stay at home. It could be one of their lives that is saved in an accident somewhere.”

Stephen Flynn, who lives in nearby Lake Hollywood Estates, said many of his neighbors understand the city’s dilemma.

“We ask the city for a lot of things, and it is not fair for us to always say, ‘No,’ ” Flynn said. “The city is growing and has a lot of problems. We can’t just keep looking at our own privacy and lifestyle at the exclusion of the other 10 million people who live here.”