Fire Department to Improve Safety Aboard 4 Helicopters

More than seven months after a helicopter crash killed three firefighters and the young girl they were trying to save, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to spend $316,020 to upgrade safety aboard four Fire Department helicopters.

In a session marked by pointed criticism of Fire Department leaders, several council members lambasted the department for not seeking money sooner or presenting its case more forcefully. The funding motion made its way to council after the president of the city’s firefighters union told Councilman Richard Alarcon the money was needed.

“I find it very distressing that we are left in a situation of having to decide on our own what the department’s most pressing needs are,” said Councilwoman Laura Chick, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee.

Nearly every council member had something to say about the measure, an emotional reminder of the Fire Department’s worst air disaster. The March 23 crash, apparently caused by a faulty tail rotor, happened as firefighters rushed 11-year-old Norma Vides-Anaya, who had been in a car accident in Sun Valley, to the hospital. Paramedics Eric F. Reiner and Michael A. Butler and crew member Michael McComb were also killed when the helicopter crashed in Griffith Park.

A Fire Department report released last week said the 22-year-old helicopter, a backup rescue vehicle, did not have helmets, tether straps or other safety devices designed for crash protection. The report did not say whether the equipment would have saved lives.

Assistant Fire Chief Dean Cathey said the upgrade approved Tuesday--which includes restraint harnesses for the fleet’s four large helicopters and transport modules designed to ferry patients inside two of them--represented a fraction of the safety improvements needed. He said the department plans to bring a larger package to the council after it finishes a task force report on safety measures in two weeks.

“To come and ask for $300,000 today and then come and ask for $3 million two weeks from now doesn’t make sense,” Cathey said later. “The responsible thing to do in a situation like this is to bring forth all of your needs at the same time.”

Several council members pressed Cathey and Deputy Chief Robert Neamy about whether they should wait two weeks to consider the measure as part of the Fire Department’s broader funding request. Neamy replied calmly that it was better to act now--but his low-key demeanor failed to smooth a number of ruffled feathers.

“You should be convinced that you need it and you want it now!” exclaimed Councilman Nate Holden. “You’re the one we’re looking to for advice.”

“We need it today and we needed it six months ago,” Alarcon said, adding: “I’m getting tired of these slowpoke requests.”

“I think it’s outrageous,” Chick put in, thanking union president Ken Buzzell for bringing the matter to the council’s attention. “Thank heavens we have people here who have reliable sources of information outside of department heads.”

The rough treatment did not appear to faze the Fire Department brass--whose job, Cathey said, demands stoicism under fire.

“We tend to point out our needs unemotionally,” he said. “That’s the way we do business. If you become too emotional, you can’t be effective in an emergency.”