FIREFIGHTING CRISIS WORKER SHORTAGE FORCES ROLLING STATION CLOSURES IN L.A.

Byline: Jordan Smith Staff Writer

Shortages of Los Angeles city firefighters and paramedics have become so bad the department daily closes fire stations across the city, the Daily News learned Tuesday.

Fire officials initially denied the closings have become routine and widespread. But on Tuesday, they acknowledged that the rolling closures are required almost daily in an effort to ensure fire and emergency medical coverage for all areas of the city.

Paramedics and critics said the closures endanger lives and property.

``If we had a fire or a multicasualty incident and had that many companies out of service in the Valley, we'd be in trouble,''said Ken Buzzell, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City. ``It is like musical chairs. If you move the chairs around enough, it looks like you have more chairs.''

According to documents obtained by the Daily News, on Christmas day 1999, for example, the city's only two hazardous materials units and the only urban search-and-rescue team were closed.

In addition, nine of the 35 San Fernando Valley engine companies were shut down, about a quarter of the Valley's fire-fighting resources, according to the Fire Department memorandum outlining daily closures.

Paramedics said the rolling closures are particularly severe in the Valley because of larger distances between fire stations and because the Valley has only about 30 paramedic units when fully staffed.

But fire spokesman Capt. Steve Ruda said the closures are done in such a way that no section of the city is without coverage and public safety is preserved.

Yet Ruda acknowledged that the department should have more paramedics and firefighters to do the job effectively.

``Because of the balancing of manpower, you will have a resource there,'' Ruda said. ``It's an administrative nightmare, and one day it'll be nice to have the resources to place. But right now, without those resources, we have to work a balance.''

Because the department is short so many positions, closures have now become routine, fire officials said, with the biggest staffing shortages falling on weekends and holidays.

Last week, Capt. Bill Wells, a planning official, said the department's directive is to always keep all ``resources up and running and in service.''

He said certain resources would be closed for training, but the department ``routinely has all ambulances and engines staffed.''

But fire officials said Tuesday that closures are routine. They said, however, that this alone does not put public safety at risk.

Yet Dr. Brian Johnston, an emergency room physician, said the closures of stations increase response times when saving lives could jeopardize lives.

``Two minutes can make a huge difference,'' said Johnston, board chairman of the Los Angeles County Medical Association. ``You know I think they are trying to say it is unimportant, but it is. And it is within our power to fix it.''

The closures depend on daily staffing levels and how many people the department can get to work overtime. Last year the department spent $77 million in overtime wages to keep the squad staffed - nearly one- quarter of the department's $320 million budget.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has at least 117 vacancies for firefighters, which accounts for 12 percent of the force, and 150 paramedic vacancies, which accounts for nearly 25 percent of staffing. For this fiscal year, the department's budget includes enough money for only 80 more paramedics.

``It's a domino, everything is effected by these vacancies. At some point you get enough (mad) and overworked paramedics and you can see how the whole system is spinning around the drain,'' said Rob Linnell, president of the Los Angeles Paramedics Association.

Although the public may believe all fire stations always are staffed, that is not the case, which Buzzell said is misleading.

``We're suffering from such staffing shortages that if we have two incidents at one time we'll be hard pressed to deal with them.''

The shutting down of stations is coordinated with central dispatch, said Deputy Chief Dave Thompson, head of the Bureau of Emergency Services, to ensure that there are not huge gaps across the city that would make it more difficult for firefighters or paramedics to respond to calls.

``We make the (closure) determinations based on coverage with dispatch coordinators, so we can make sure that they city is still covered,'' he said.

Additionally, Thompson said, there are daily closures due to ongoing staff trainings.

But critics said shutting down stations because of staffing shortages is a significant risk to public safety.

``These closures go above and beyond staff trainings. The rigs are there, but there's nobody to staff them,'' Buzzell said.

In the 1998-1999 fiscal year, the last for which numbers are available, the department responded to a total of 305,936 emergency incidents. Of those calls, 241,217 were for emergency medical services, or 79 percent of emergency incidents that year. The remaining 64,719 were fire calls, or 21 percent of emergency incidents.

CAPTION(S):

chart

Chart: Bearing the burden

Emergency incidents involving paramedics and other medical personnel more than double the incidents involving firefighters.