Residents Get Fired Up Over Plan to Close County Station

Fire protection is not a matter taken lightly by Chatsworth Lake resident Margaret Foreman, who remembers the day in 1967 when an early morning fire swept down the hill and consumed her house in minutes.

Fifty-one other houses in the rugged Santa Susana Mountains community west of Chatsworth were also destroyed. Memories of the disaster still linger.

That is why the county’s budget-cutting plan to close Fire Station 75, located in the heart of the rural neighborhood, has provoked ire among residents. They fear that if fire again strikes their drought-parched hillsides, damage will be even greater.

Residents have launched a letter-writing and petition campaign in hopes of persuading county officials, including Supervisors Mike Antonovich and Ed Edelman, to keep the station open.

The station is scheduled to close March 1 as part of a package of Fire Department cutbacks to reduce an $11-million budget shortfall for this year. County fire officials said the 4,300 residents of Chatsworth Lake could be adequately protected by three city Fire Department stations located two to four miles away from the center of the community.

City and county fire officials are discussing the takeover plan. However, City Battalion Chief David Badgett said Wednesday that his department has not yet agreed to accept full responsibility for serving the rugged hillside area.

Badgett said the city has always assisted the county station when needed but that Mayor Tom Bradley must approve any agreement for the city to provide fire protection for the area.

“Whenever possible, the city and county help each other out, but this matter is still very much under consideration,” he said. “No ink is dry on any lines anywhere.”

County officials said the station will not shut down until an agreement with the city is reached.

County Assistant Fire Chief Leonard Provost said county studies indicate that response time from the city stations would be “reasonable.” He estimated that crews from city stations could arrive at most houses in less than 10 minutes. He declined to provide response times from the current county station.

Provost said the county Fire Department would prefer to keep the station open but is forced to close it to save $1 million per year in employee salaries and benefits, and other costs.

“We have to balance fire safety with the budget,” Battalion Chief Al Bennett said. “If we had an unlimited budget, we would have paramedics at every corner and firetrucks on every other block. But this is a time of fiscal constraint.”

“I don’t expect any significant change as far as fire protection is concerned,” Provost said. “The response time is well within the parameters set for reasonable.”

But angry residents predict that the loss of Station 75 will mean increased destruction if wind-swept flames strike the area again.

“I’m incensed,” Ed Kissinger, a 25-year resident of the area who braved heat, flames and smoke to save his house with a garden hose in 1967.

Kissinger said community residents generate approximately $2.2 million in tax revenues, but their rural area is not served by county utilities such as sewers and street lights. The closest county sheriff’s station is in Malibu. At least, he said, they should have the fire station.

“They are being penny-wise and pound-foolish,” said Foreman, who argued that the hillside area is so windy that any delay in response time would mean more houses lost.

Foreman also said the Chatsworth Lake area is filled with narrow, winding, dead-end streets. City firefighters, unfamiliar with the area, would have difficulty navigating the terrain in an emergency.

Provost said county officials are working to familiarize city firefighters with the community. He said the Station 75 crew is often sent out to fight brush fires in other areas, leaving the Chatsworth Lake area to the protection of the three city fire stations.

A spokesman for Edelman, who represents the area, said the supervisor is studying the matter.

Victoria Fouce, assistant chief deputy for Antonovich, said the supervisor believes the city can provide sufficient protection for the citizens, and that he does not plan to complain.

“Our main concern is that our people have coverage and we have been assured of that,” she said.