Firefighters’ Flood Training Starts Early

“It never rains in Southern California,” the song says, but the Los Angeles Fire Department knows better: The city gets about 15 inches a year, and firefighters train year-round for the problems the approaching rainy season brings.

“Anyone who thinks it doesn’t rain here is dreaming,” said Brian Humphrey, spokesman for the department.

The flood season technically doesn’t begin until 2 inches of precipitation has fallen each rainy season--most of it between November and March, according to authorities. But the firefighters begin their preparations long before then, with tasks such as surveying the landscape for flood hazards or tuning up jet skis used in swift-water rescues, Humphrey said.

“Many people are surprised that we’re preparing for floods in May, when the temperatures are reaching 100 degrees,” Humphrey said.

The news attention goes to televised swift-water rescues, Humphrey said. But much of the department’s efforts are geared to informing residents how they can salvage personal property.

Throughout the year, inspectors survey the city looking for homes near hillsides with loose soil--such as those in the northern San Fernando Valley--and new construction that may have loosened the earth.

When firefighters identify such places, they urge those home and business owners to take precautions.

Many people think that the only precaution they can take is piling up sandbags around their property once the rain has reached flood levels, Humphrey said, and the department is providing free sandbags to property owners again this year.

But there are other precautions property owners can take long before an actual flood.

Homeowners can avoid finding several inches of water in their living rooms by digging diversion channels around the property. Humphrey said plentiful vegetation--particularly mature plants--help absorb water.

The most overlooked precaution is flood insurance, Humphrey said.

The department also prepares for more severe flooding by training many firefighters to rescue people being carried down a wild river at 40 mph or caught on a tree branch in the midst of rising waters.

During the summer, instructors in charge of the department’s Swift Water Rescue teams begin updating their equipment lists to make sure there is plenty of rope or that the jet-ski engines are tuned up.

Residents have often called the department asking why ambulances are cruising the freeway hauling jet skis, Humphrey said. The answer: They are taking the crews to some local body of water for training.

Each firefighter has at least an eight-hour course in flood-rescue techniques, but the 48 firefighters in four Swift Water Rescue Teams have the most advanced training.

Those crews learn skills such as how to anchor a fire hose on a bridge and throw it down to a victim, calculate the speed of the current and warn partners downstream, Humphrey said.

Paramedics are taught how to treat hypothermia, the likely ailment afflicting a person who has spent a couple hours submerged in cold water.

But no matter how prepared firefighters are, residents themselves are in the best position to save their lives and property during the upcoming rains, Humphrey said.

“You should be extremely wary of any water,” he warned. “Many are not aware of what dangers lurk in that peaceful water flow.”