Secession Would Weaken Fire Department, Deputy Chief Says

Breaking up the Los Angeles Fire Department would reduce its effectiveness in fighting major brush fires and high-rise blazes, a top fire official said Tuesday during a City Hall hearing on secession efforts.

Deputy Chief John Callahan said the best way to maintain quality fire protection should new cities be created in the San Fernando Valley or the Harbor area is for the municipalities to contract with the existing department.

Splitting up the Fire Department would be problematic, Callahan said, because “what we have now is a system that is able to respond to emergencies everywhere in the city.”

He said the department’s six helicopters are formidable tools when employed together. “When the brush starts burning out in Chatsworth, we have six helicopters to throw at that,” he said.

Tuesday’s hearing was one of a series by consultants hired by the Local Agency Formation Commission to identify potential problems in dividing up city assets and services.

During peak fire season, the city routinely transfers 10 firetrucks from other parts of the city to remain on standby in the Valley, Callahan said. The Valley has 35 of the city’s 102 fire stations and about 36% of its population.

Callahan conceded that emergency response times in the Valley are greater than in the rest of the city, one impetus driving secession efforts.

Valley VOTE Chairman Richard Close, whose organization has pushed secession, said: “There is no question that the response time shows a lack of adequate services compared to what other cities provide.”

Mutual aid agreements, such as those between Los Angeles and surrounding cities, would solve the problem of fighting major fires, he said.

But Callahan said a mutual aid agreement does not guarantee service and requires coordination between different agencies, which could slow the response.

“When those resources in the Valley are stretched thin and need help, we may not be able to get out there as quickly if it is a mutual aid situation than if we have one seamless city department,” Callahan said after the hearing. The best option for any new cities, he said, would be to contract with the Los Angeles Fire Department.

The department has set a target of reaching 90% of emergencies within five minutes. Citywide, the department reaches 90% of emergencies in 5.3 minutes. In the Valley, the crews arrive in 5.8 minutes, Callahan said.

The size of the Valley accounts for longer response times there, Callahan said. Hiring more paramedics, building more fire stations and putting more ambulances in the Valley’s fire stations should reduce response times, he said.

Elections to decide cityhood for the Valley and Harbor area could be held as early as November 2002. LAFCO would first have to determine, however, that the breakup will not hurt either the new cities or what is left of Los Angeles.