New Fire Station May Cut Response Time

Help is on the way for northeast Valley residents who for years have been forced to endure the longest emergency response times in Los Angeles.

Fire officials said this week that they are scouting potential locations for a new station in Panorama City and hope to begin construction by early 1998.

“We hope to acquire something by the end of the year and get going as soon as possible,” said Emile Mack, planning chief for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The department is also looking for a new location for Station 81 in Arleta, which will moved in an effort to ensure that the two stations provide the most efficient service for residents in the area, Mack said.

The new $1.1-million station, which has been named Station 7, was the only one included in the city’s 1997-98 budget.

Mack said it will be located somewhere south of the former General Motors plant, which is undergoing renovations that will transform the site of the former automobile assembly facility into a large retail center. Station 81 will be moved to a site north of its current Nordhoff Street location, Mack said.

“That area has the most extended response times in the entire city for such a built-up area,” Mack said.

“Our main goal is to reduce the response time. We want to be able to get an ambulance on scene in five minutes,” he said. The current average response time for the area is seven minutes, he said.

The new station will house an engine company consisting of one vehicle, a captain, an engineer and two firefighters.