In 2011, we said that when we preach public safety first, we mean just that. When someone dials 9-1-1, the caller is in urgent need of help from police, firefighters or paramedics, if not all three. The dispatcher who answers that call says something to the effect of “9-1-1, what’s your emergency?” Emergency is the key word here, and our city’s residents expect and deserve the fastest possible response of emergency personnel – especially when every minute counts.

We agree with the Los Angeles firefighters who have voiced huge concern over Fire Chief Brian Cummings’ experiment to prop up response time by adding 11 ambulances to the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) service by taking firefighters off of firetrucks. What the Chief is not telling the public is that with fire season just starting, as evident by the fire burning in Ventura County last week and wildfire in Glendale last Friday, his Band-Aid solution calls for taking 66 firefighters city wide off of fire trucks in an effort to add more ambulances. Moreover, this will negatively affect the fire department’s response with the appropriate personnel to the more common emergencies, like serious car accidents on our streets and freeways, many of which require LAFD to extract victims.

What the Chief is also not telling the public is that with this shuffle of fire personnel, he isn’t planning to add paramedic ambulances that provide advanced life support for the seriously injured, but only those with the ability to provide basic life support. Regardless, he’ll have more ambulances that will allow him to “stop the clock” and reduce response times. This is all just to counter to the media attention about this sensitive issue.

The transfer of firefighters is so dangerous that for the first time in the history the LAFD, the Chief Officers Association is joining United Firefighters of Los Angeles City (UFLAC), which represents the rank and file of the LAFD, in opposing this risky move. Chief Officers Association (COA) President Andy Fox called Cummings’ scheme “ill-conceived and unsafe.” During public testimony on the issue, Fox emphasized that firefighter professional standards say that light force companies need at least five people, with three of them being firefighters. Cummings is taking the number down to four, with two of them firefighters.

No one disagrees that the City needs more ambulances; however, as the COA/UFLAC Joint Position Paper on Removing Inside Firefighters makes clear, “public safety and firefighter safety in Los Angles has never been placed in a more compromising position than the one we find ourselves in now.”

City leaders need to speak up and stop this dangerous trial that puts the safety of the public and our firefighters in higher jeopardy, not to mention violates national standards for recommended staffing of fire companies in large metropolitan areas.

The men and women of LAPD and LAFD continue to pull together to protect our city despite continually diminishing resources, and we are watching to see how many of our elected leaders stand with us and put public safety first.

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