Councilman Proposes Reservist Program for City Fire Department : Protection: Volunteer corps would be used to help offset impact of brownouts caused by budget cuts.

City Councilman Ernani Bernardi on Wednesday proposed the creation of a volunteer reservist corps for the Los Angeles Fire Department, which has cut services under a system of rolling “brownouts” brought on by a $22-million department budget deficit.

The San Fernando Valley lawmaker said the proposal--actually prompted by a constituent in Sylmar--would free regular firefighters from routine duties, such as directing traffic at scenes of emergencies or transporting crucial firefighting equipment, and allow them to concentrate on more important duties.

The idea is patterned after the Los Angeles Police Department’s reserve program in which 800 reservists augment the city’s force of 8,300 police officers.

“I think fire reservists would be a wonderful idea,” Bernardi said.

The city’s budget crunch forced the elimination of $22 million in Fire Department services, prompting the removal of six of the city’s 54 ambulances from daily service for nine-day periods on a rotating basis throughout the city.

The Fire Department’s response to Bernardi’s proposal was less than enthusiastic.

“No one has has talked to the Fire Department concerning this proposal or venture,” said spokesman Stephen Ruda. “If and when we are approached, this department will look at it earnestly and make its recommendations to the City Council.”

Ruda said the department has been a “strictly professionally trained organization” since 1886, when it converted to paid employees from a volunteer force.

“If they’re asking us to cut back,” Ruda said, “how do they anticipate providing training, medical services, uniforms, protective equipment, for the volunteers? Those issues would be major obstacles.”

Under the brownout system, 13 of the city’s 97 engine and truck companies would be out of service during a nine-day period. There are about 2,500 firefighters in the department.

Bernardi noted in his proposal that the situation has resulted in close calls in life-threatening situations. Last week, for example, a paramedic response to a 911 call in Hollywood nearly cost the life of a woman who was having difficulty breathing.

The councilman said the paramedic unit that ordinarily would have responded to the call was out of service under the nine-day rotation system. The next closest unit was on another emergency call. Another paramedic unit was dispatched but its response was determined to be four minutes slower than that of the unit out of service, he said, and the delay nearly caused a fatality.

The incident was said to be the closest near-miss detected since the Fire Department implemented the City Council-mandated cuts.

Bernardi said he was not deterred by the Fire Department’s initial reluctance.

“We’ve used volunteers in many other areas (in the city), there’s no reason why they can’t be accommodated here,” he said.

The proposal is scheduled for a preliminary council vote next week. Bernardi wants a 45-day study to assess the programs’s feasibility.