By Brian L. Cummings
Fire Chief
The Los Angeles (CA) Fire Department (LAFD) is currently being asked: have response times gotten worse since the budget was cut a few years ago?
It’s a question being posed to fire departments across the country that are all having to do more with less. The LAFD is no different.
In fiscal year 2009-2010, the Fire Department’s budget was reduced to $505 million. To meet $39 million of the budget reduction, LAFD began using the Modified Coverage Plan (MCP). In fiscal year 2010-2011, the LAFD budget was cut again to $495 million.
In March of 2011, as part of the budget process, the LAFD submitted a 3 year Deployment Plan to the Fire Commission and City Government. The deployment was designed to minimize the impact of resource reduction on response times by more closely matching daily resource deployment with types and frequencies of incidents.
The plan allowed the LAFD to end disruptive rotational closures of 22 fire companies and 6 Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances by instead eliminating 18 fire companies and 4 BLS ambulances.
The Fire Chief at the time, Millage Peaks, explained the deployment plan using new computer software, Apparatus Deployment Analysis Module, or ADAM. The software program is used as another tool to project the impact of redeploying firefighting resources. Using dispatch data, ADAM modeled possible deployment solutions based on response times, call frequency and incident types within each fire station district. Included in the BFC 11-048 Revised Proposed Budget Fiscal Year 2011-12 LAFD Deployment Plan report, is the projected impact of the Plan on response times to Emergency Medical Service (EMS) incidents and structure fires. Since it is impossible to predict the number of fire companies that will be called on to respond to a emergency incident at any given period in time, the computer calculated as if ALL the city’s fire companies were in service and available, a best case scenario. The ADAM software generated projections only, not actual response times.
The Department has not misled the public and city leaders, as has been suggested by some, and in fact has been transparent in its efforts to provide accurate response time information. In BFC 11-169 Deployment Plan Analysis and Report, 4 months of response data under the new plan shows, as predicted, response time did increase slightly by a few seconds.
Adding to the complexity, in 2009 the LAFD transitioned to a new method of calculating response times and performance. The old method used less than 6 minutes as the performance goal for first unit on scene and less than10 minutes for first Advanced Life Support (ALS) unit on scene by including dispatch processing time of 59 seconds. The current method, aligned with the 2010 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1710 recommendations, uses response time goals of less than 5 minutes and less than 9 minutes 90 percent of the time from the actual time of dispatch to time on scene.
In the City of Los Angeles our most critical responses, in terms of protecting life and property, are medical incidents that require advance life support (ALS – paramedic) intervention and structure fire incidents. The most critical performance measurement in LAFD response times is first unit on scene at an incident; first ALS unit on scene at an ALS incident, and first unit on scene at a structure fire.
In fiscal year 2008-2009, prior to any reductions to fire department resources, the first resource arrived on scene to an ALS call in an average time of four minutes and 41 seconds 66 percent of the time from time of dispatch. Our most recent data indicates that under our new deployment the performance goal was achieved 64 percent of the time when a first resource arrived on scene in an average time of four minutes and 45 seconds.
For our advance life support calls, such as heart attacks and chest pains, our current response time for an ALS company on a city-wide average is five minutes and 36 seconds from time of dispatch 92 percent of the time. Prior to any deployment modifications, our average response time for these calls was five minutes 26 seconds 93 percent of the time.
Under the NFPA recommendations, firefighters are allowed an additional 20 seconds to put on their personal protective equipment when responding to a structure fire. Under the five minute 20 second NFPA guideline, recent data shows LAFD resources arrived on scene in an average time of three minutes 57 seconds 87 percent of the time. Before the new Deployment Plan, resources arrived two seconds faster, at three minutes 55 seconds 87 percent of the time.
The reasons for the increase in response times are based on facts, not false information. The City of Los Angeles has seen a 3 percent increase in the number of Emergency Medical Service calls, while daily staffing has been reduced by 12 percent, fire companies have been reduced by 12 percent and Basic Life Support ambulances have been reduced 17 percent.
The Los Angeles Fire Department monitors its response times on a daily basis and makes changes as necessary to meet call load demand in areas when calls for service increase.
I welcome anyone to review our response times and compare us with other departments across the region and country.
I am extremely proud of the Los Angeles Fire Department and the level of service the men and women provide in keeping our city safe.
