Proposed Fire Department Cuts

* As the brush-fire season starts, Mayor Richard Riordan and the City Council are ordering the Fire Department to undergo the largest personnel/operational cut in its history. Over the past few years, 10 fire stations have been closed, never to be reopened, and dozens of fire companies taken out of service. In 1960 the staffing on an engine company (the standard firefighting unit) was a captain, an engineer and five firefighters. Today the same company consists of a captain, an engineer and only two firefighters.

Over 50 firefighter positions are about to be eliminated from the field. Staff assistants (called “chauffeurs” by the mayor) are firefighters assigned to battalion chiefs, and assist them with command duties at emergencies, including fire reconnaissance, radio communications and safety status of firefighters. They allow the chief to begin command functions while en route to a fire. Their loss will have a direct impact on firefighter safety as well as the overall success of emergency operations.

Currently the mayor and City Council have plans to remove 14 ladder companies, two firefighters off all task-force companies and one firefighter off over 25 engine companies. These cuts are acceptable to the politicians because they are invisible to the public. No fire station will be closed.

The effects of continually removing pieces of the organization are subtle. A little higher dollar-loss per fire, occasionally a few more people die and of course, reduced firefighter safety. But a much greater tragedy lies ahead. The next time the ground shakes, or the Santa Ana winds blow, or a fire breaks out in a high-rise building, remember this letter. The piecemeal dismantling of your Fire Department that is being ordered by the mayor and City Council is going to cause a major disaster. Obviously nothing has been learned from the First Interstate Bank high-rise fire, the 1993 firestorms or the Northridge and Kobe earthquakes. Someday a candidate for mayor for Los Angeles will run on the promise to add 1,000 firefighters to the Fire Department.

LARRY P. SCHNEIDER, Captain

Fire Station 41 C Platoon

Los Angeles