LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to begin a yearlong, $4.5 million public outreach project to assess the needs of the fire department and ensure residents understand the financial challenges posed by increasingly severe wildfires.
Supervisor Janice Hahn said it was time to rethink the county’s firefighting resources.
Calling the nearly 97,000-acre Woolsey Fire “the worst L.A. County has ever seen,” Hahn told her colleagues, “This new normal has compelled me to ask whether our firefighters have what they need.”
Hahn’s motion highlighted the need to replace old fire engines — some of which date back more than 20 years — buy more helicopters and replace outdated communication systems.
The cost to repair or replace aging fire stations, some more than 50 years old, will total nearly $750 million, according to a report by the CEO’s office earlier this year. The department also needs more paramedics, firefighters and civilian staffers to reduce strain on the force, Hahn said.
In July, Fire Chief Daryl Osby reported that his department had more than $1.4 billion in critical infrastructure needs and urged the board to pursue funding through a 2020 ballot measure.
A consultant had been hired a month earlier to gauge support for such a ballot measure. Preliminary results of polling from that time indicated that 87 percent of voters thought the fire department was doing an excellent or good job, were aware of the increasing severity of wildfires and felt it was important for firefighters to have the right resources.
Hahn didn’t mention the polling or suggest any particular sources of new funding for the department, which has a budget of roughly $1.2 billion. As a special district, it is paid for primarily through property taxes and a special tax approved by voters in 1997.
Hahn and Osby both said the department is known for “doing more with less” and has long faced challenges around staffing and budget.
But since he joined as chief in 2011, the department has grown from being the seventh busiest to the fourth busiest fire department in the country behind New York, Chicago and the city of Los Angeles, according to Osby.
Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who co-authored the motion, said intense fire danger statewide means the department can longer rely on resources from elsewhere.
“We are on our own,” Barger said. “When we talk to families who have lost their homes, we need to be able to look them in the eye.”
The outreach campaign is aimed at gathering input about residents’ experiences in recent fires as well as with day-to-day paramedic emergencies — which make up more than 80 percent of the calls handled by the fire department. It will also be geared toward educating residents and local community leaders about the department’s financial realities.
Supervisor Sheila Kuehl urged staffers to also reach out to residents affected by county fires from years ago.
“We are facing something so much larger,” Kuehl said, noting that earlier fires were often concentrated in one area, allowing firefighters to fan out on what seemed like every street. By contrast, the Woolsey Fire raced from the Ventura (101) Freeway to the beach in a band of flames that spanned 14 miles at one point.
An interim report on the outreach campaign is expected in six months, with a final update at the end of the 12-month project.
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GERARD says
I support whatever it takes to augment firefighters to do their work and keep them safe to return to their home and family.Paramedics in the fire service are responding to transport calls that deter them from providing lifesaving care for emergency treatment needs.I support hefty fines for abuse of this lifesaving unit, outreach to educate the public has not proven effective.
Jason Zink says
The County is at it again with wanting to tax AV Property owners with a ballot measure in 2020. Let’s not get caught again with our pants down and pockets empty. And repeat the Park and Trauma property tax ripoff, where we only get 35% return on taxes and lose $200+ million out of our Valley forever to down below LA projects. This really happened and continues to happen. Why AV Leadership? Be more like President Trump thinking of putting AV First. Put our house in order.
(Audit AV property taxes that get shipped to LA County – it’s common sense)
This is our opportunity too:
-Lead this effort with Supervisor Barger
-Kill it all together by joining other cities that would be against it.
-Seperate AV from LA like we did with County flood control tax.
-Look for other funding resources where AV and County property owners aren’t taxed. Like using a State Bond Measure or/and Federal Appropriations Bill.
Other option is to use this Fire Measure to provide the seed funding oppurtunity to start a New Local Aerospace Company were AV Workers Build Firefighting planes and helicopters with new fire fighting technology. Why use 1950 technology? We have some of the best minds and workers in the World in Aerospace Valley. We have Billionaire’s investors here. Connect the dots.
Also look at building Fire Engines, Trucks and Ambulances here in AV to supply the whole State of California.
Why buy from Canada and out of State for the needs of 40 million people. Put California and LA County Jobs First. Why use our tax dollars to build products out of State and other Countries to build up their economy’s???? Keep tax dollars and jobs Home.
See what else we can manufacturer here in AV so LA County stops buying products and equipment out of State and out of the Country. We need to create middle-class jobs in AV/LA County. Get AV Commuters off the road. Use power of Board of Supervisors and 10 Million people to create them.
This time AV is going to be on top of negotiations where LA County pays out more to AV than to LA Basin. A 150-200% return to help AV economy instead of bleeding AV and ripping us off like LA has done for decades.
A AV Bold Visionary Strategic Plan of AV Leadership working together. Ledford is gone no more excuses.
Mayor Hofbauer your the Fireman. Lead efforts and start a committee on this important issue. What is our present and future needs of AV Firefighting Report. Ask Supervisor Barger for a grant to pay a consultant from the $4.5 million set up to evaluate AV for Ballot Measure.
Protecting:
-Life(stroke, use blood thinning shot and train firefighters. Etc…)
-Property(danger areas, fire resistance homes)
-Environment Habitat(water sprinkler systems, fire breaks to protect the little Desert Woodland habitat that we have in AV)
Investing in:
– Alert Systems
-Facilities
-Equipment
-Jobs
Be on top of it, lead efforts, be involved in process and invite public input, protect AV taxpayers, create job opportunities.
Kalen says
Did I read this correct? The money is just to asses their needs? I am grateful to all firefighters and first responders. They don’t need to asses anything just get to it! Stop leasing the planes for water dumps and purchase them! Get them what they need already. Each station already knows what they need get it done already!!!!!
Magnetlady says
Living in the ”high desert” does require property owners to ”CLEAR THE BRUSH” around our homes & fields… The ”undergrowth” in the forests needs to be cleared, dead trees removed & made healthy… Unfortunately, the Environmentalists are too busy protecting ”bark beetles” & other critters…President Trump is right, it’s a MANAGEMENT problem… Our Firefighters are doing a great job & I hope we get more qualified men & women for these jobs…
Trump's right again says
“L.A. County to re-evaluate firefighting needs”
Well I hope so
“They have lousy management, Trump said”
This is what happens when critical firefighting funding is diverted to protect illegal’s welfare
You can either have cheap car washes, landscaping, nice taco’s, while your multi million $ home burns down in the mountains
Alexis says
I have a deep appreciation for firefighters and first responders.
Tim Scott says
I have a deep appreciation for firefighters. That doesn’t mean I have any appreciation for people who say that ‘we’ need a lot more firefighting capability so that ‘we’ can properly protect their hilltop villa. This part of we just doesn’t care that much about their hilltop villa, and ‘we’ have plenty of firefighting capability to successfully protect my flatland home.
Alexis says
I don’t know what article you read, but it sure isn’t this one. I guess if it doesn’t affect you personally than you don’t give a rip. I’m what you would consider a grateful poor person, and I hope that any fire that damages structures, putting lives at risk, and burns through 97,000 acres anywhere in California, that firefighters and first responders have exactly what they need to do this extremely dangerous work, whether in the hills or flatlands. It I heartbreaking to see a state that I love, and the people that live here go through this horror.
Tim Scott says
Agreed. That’s why the people who live here should be living in places that are easy to protect from fires. But of course the wealthy need to have their ‘statement home’ and the rest of us need to pay to protect it.
I just as much “give a rip” as you do, I just see a bigger picture than you are apparently willing to look at.
Alexis says
Whatever the firefighters need, I’m all for it!
Fire Danger says
Doing more with less is fine until shortages and overloads start jeopardizing public safety.
Tim Scott says
Define “public.” Generally speaking, the people who are endangered by wildfires are a very narrowly defined group, not the public at large. The way the expenses of firefighting are covered does not reflect that, at all, with the brunt of the costs landing on the people who aren’t needing that benefit. Until that imbalance is addressed there will always be problems.
Casey says
Agree, Fire Danger. Fire fighters don’t just stay in L. A. County, but fight fires in the entire State, and elsewhere. Public safety would definitely be jeopardized with doing more with less. Fire endangers much more than a narrowly defined group. We see this every year, and it isn’t going to get any better.
Tim Scott says
When’s the last time you saw a wildfire sweep into Van Nuys?
Casey says
Several large fires in Van Nuys over the last year. One just three days ago.
Tim Scott says
And that fire took hundreds of firefighters and several days of round the clock shifts? No, Casey, it didn’t. Your attempt to use that to deflect from the point was ridiculous, and I’m fairly certain that you know it.
Realism says
Fact of the matter is, it is not possible for a wildfire to rip into Van Nuys and be a known large scale issue due to the lack of fuel in Van Nuys a concentrated concrete ridden city with high population per square acre or mile. We need to accept that the CA population resides in many different terrains some requiring more firefighting efforts. That is not going to change. If a mile long strip of structures went up in Van Nuys trust me it will be a hell of a firefighting effort and taking days to extinguish.
Tim Scott says
Is “wealthy people need to live in their statement home up in some semi-private canyon” really not subject to change? Why?
Alexis says
Isn’t it wonderful that we have firefighters and first responders in our communities, whether in the city or outlying areas. I’m all for whatever they need to put out fires, and keep people safe. Just think what it would be like if we didn’t have them.
Laughing says
That is exactly the point of the article. They are looking for funding to replace and enhance what the fire fighters already have. Not downsizing anything.