Elite Rescue Unit May Fall Victim as Sheriff Tries to Cut Spending

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s squad that handles the most challenging and life-threatening rescues is scheduled to be gutted of personnel and stripped of its helicopter at the end of the month, another apparent victim of the coming year’s drastic budget cuts.

Grounding the helicopter also would leave a gap in the county’s air ambulance system for more common medical emergencies, particularly in the Antelope Valley, which is most easily reached from the helicopter’s base in Angeles National Forest, Sheriff’s Department and fire officials said.

The 17-member Emergency Services Detail is to be cut to four deputies as part of Sheriff Sherman Block’s plan to meet a shortfall of at least $27 million in his $812-million budget.

Block announced at the end of May that the unit would be among the service cuts necessitated by the budget shortfall. To avoid further large cuts, he will reassign the deputies by July 1 and ground the helicopter--which costs at least $1.5 million a year to staff and operate--even though budget deliberations will not take place until the end of July.

During its 26-year history, the unit has been called on in the most trying situations, plucking people by air from raging flood channels or remote canyon ledges and searching for injured skiers or lost scuba divers. Last year the squad took part in 783 search-and-rescue missions, including the unsuccessful search for two missing skiers on Mt. Baldy.

Lacking a helicopter and more than 75% of its present crew, those functions would be almost impossible to perform, said Capt. Dan Burt, head of the sheriff’s special enforcement bureau.

Burt said the special unit’s deputies are the “supermen” of the Sheriff’s Department. They are trained in scuba diving, rock climbing, swift-water swimming, paramedic treatment and marksmanship.

“They’re the kinds of guys who are triathletes . . . who think an ideal vacation is going out 300 miles off the coast of Mexico and spearfishing without scuba tanks in shark-infested waters,” he said.

Burt said he is searching for alternative funding, such as a grant, and still hopes that the Board of Supervisors may reinstate money for the team during its budget deliberations. But he has already begun making reassignments. “I have to be realistic,” he said.

Some of the squad’s responsibilities will be shouldered by other county personnel, including county firefighters who have access to three helicopters for use as air ambulances.

But Sheriff’s Department and fire officials agree that cutbacks will have a significant impact. It will mean slower response times, loss of those who are most experienced in the vagaries and physical strain of mountain searches and rescues, and force the transport of some critically injured patients by ambulance vehicles to smaller local hospitals that may lack trauma care capabilities.

“There would still be somebody responding, but there’s only so much we can do,” Deputy Fire Chief Paul Blackburn said. “When you reduce your resources, it takes a little longer.”

In addition to being stretched by the demand for air ambulances in the rest of the county, Blackburn said, the Fire Department helicopters are reserved first for transportation of firefighters and water to fires.

“When they’re doing that, they’re not available for rescues,” he said.

Families and friends of victims have joined with representatives of rescue reserve volunteers to try to save the unit. Among those involved is David Bischoff of Woodland Hills whose son, Adam, drowned in the storm-swollen Los Angeles River in February.

Although the unit was not called out to rescue Adam, Bischoff and others believe the squad is an important component of an improved swift-water rescue system that was initiated Feb. 14, the day after Adam’s body was found in the Sepulveda Basin.

“Doing away with the one trained group in Los Angeles doesn’t seem to be the right step,” Bischoff said.

The unit’s rapid-water expertise was demonstrated in the rescue of 6-year-old Angel Sainz Beltran, who fell into the San Gabriel River in April, 1991, according to sheriff’s officials. Deputy Terry Ascherin was lowered by cable from a helicopter to pull the nearly dead boy from the water and he began cardiopulmonary resuscitation during the flight to the hospital.

Bill Masten, a fire captain who is coordinating the county Swift Water Rescue Committee, said the unit was to be part of the swift water team, along with the Fire Department, lifeguards and the Department of Public Works.

“The dust hasn’t settled yet, so we don’t really know how big of a gap this is going to cause,” he said. “We’re trying to find ways to use those people elsewhere in the swift water system.”

More than 100 county reserve rescuers, whose efforts are often coordinated by the unit, have expressed concern that they will not be dispatched to emergencies if the team is cut back. But Blackburn said he sent a memo to fire chiefs earlier this week reminding them to call on the volunteers, most of whom are trained emergency medical technicians.

In fact, Blackburn said, the volunteers’ expertise might be called on even more frequently if the cuts occur because his department lacks experience and training in mountain rescues.

“We are in the process of training all of our people in urban search and rescue, which is not the same thing as mountain search and rescue,” Blackburn said. “Mountain search and rescue is usually finding someone who is lost. Urban search and rescue is usually helping people who are trapped.”

Times staff writer Carol Watson contributed to this story.