Emergency Vehicles

County transportation officials will decide Monday whether to give the green light to a countywide system allowing police and firefighters on emergency calls to control traffic signals from their vehicles--despite some resistance from cities worried about snarled traffic.

PORTLAND, Ore. - In the last week Vanessa Ogden could speak, she was telling everyone the story of how she herded customers into a storeroom as a gunman stalked the Clackamas Town Center mall. The 29-year-old clothing shop manager had barricaded the door as shots rang out in the nearby food court, and when a police officer knocked and said it was time to come out, Ogden insisted on going out alone to make sure it was safe. "She's a real take-charge person. She doesn't panic. She's pretty level-headed in any situation," said her mother, Vicki Porter.

It's risky business when police and firefighters responding to emergency calls must race through busy intersections, relying only on their sirens and flashing lights to alert motorists to get out of the way. Some drivers--windows rolled up, stereos blaring, cell phones on--don't see or hear emergency vehicles until they are practically on top of them. "As police officers, we see it all the time," said Monrovia Police Chief Joseph A. Santoro.

Eastern states took slow but steady steps toward normalcy Wednesday, coping amid rescue and cleanup efforts after Hurricane Irene turned parts of the rural Northeast into flooded disaster areas. Officials in Vermont continued to airlift supplies — including food, water, medicine and diapers — to people cut off by flooded streams and rivers. But roads across the state were open to emergency vehicles, a step up from Tuesday when at least 13 communities were isolated, according to the Vermont Emergency Operations Center.

Responding to years of complaints about public safety hazards created when construction projects block the narrow streets of hillside neighborhoods, city officials are finally preparing for a crackdown.

For about eight years, the Santa Ana Fire Department has been waiting for the green light on technology that people like Chief Marc Martin say would make emergency responses faster and safer. As with all traffic jams, that city hasn't been alone. Known as "traffic signal preemption," the technology works by providing right-of-way access to emergency vehicles as they maneuver through intersections. A transmitter in the fire vehicle activates a detector at the intersection.

Joseph Ortiz Jr. is retired from the Los Angeles Fire Department, but surrounded by more firetrucks and ambulances than ever. And making it pay. Ortiz's lifelong passion for firetrucks and other emergency vehicles has led him to amass a fleet of them on a dirt parking lot, where he is visited by Hollywood filmmakers, organizers of small-town parades and anyone else who wants to rent a big, shiny firetruck covered with hoses and gleaming brass fittings.

Drivers faced with black-and-yellow speed bumps that break up the smooth flow of Dove Canyon's neighborhood streets have a choice: slow down or continue full speed ahead and risk mangling their vehicle's suspension. Most drivers choose to hit the brakes, explaining why speed bumps are one of the most effective ways to slow down traffic in residential neighborhoods, said Battalion Chief Scott Brown of the Orange County Fire Authority.

A disaster preparedness drill is planned for Monday at the Naval Training Center in Loma Portal. Emergency vehicles will be seen in the area, Gate 1 on Lytton Avenue will be closed and Gate 3 on Rosecrans Street will be open only to emergency vehicles. Normal traffic should use Gate 6 on Rosecrans and Gate 10A on Harbor Drive. The drill is intended as a practice exercise for handling large numbers of casualties.

PORTLAND, Ore. - In the last week Vanessa Ogden could speak, she was telling everyone the story of how she herded customers into a storeroom as a gunman stalked the Clackamas Town Center mall. The 29-year-old clothing shop manager had barricaded the door as shots rang out in the nearby food court, and when a police officer knocked and said it was time to come out, Ogden insisted on going out alone to make sure it was safe. "She's a real take-charge person. She doesn't panic. She's pretty level-headed in any situation," said her mother, Vicki Porter.

The deaths of five officers in the line of duty — including two who died in separate accidents Sunday — have shaken the California Highway Patrol and again raised questions about safety procedures when officers stop cars on the highway. Officials said they can't recall this many officers dying in such a time. Three of the officers were killed in accidents on freeway or highway shoulders, where they were struck by cars. CHP officials and traffic experts said the deaths are the latest reminders of how dangerous the job of a CHP officer is — particularly when they are on the side of a freeway with no barriers or protection against fast-moving cars.

Critical minutes were lost in two recent emergency medical calls, including one in which a woman died, because nearby Los Angeles Fire Department engines had been taken out of service because of budget cuts, according to fire officials. In both cases, units from farther away responded to the calls. Since August, at least three people have died -- including a 3-year-old boy and a 65-year-old woman -- in incidents in which a closer fire truck had been shuttered because of cutbacks imposed by the Fire Department.

The Los Angeles Fire Department has begun shutting down rescue units and eliminating paramedic field supervisors as part a cost-cutting plan that officials say will increase response times during life-threatening emergencies. The plan goes into full effect early Thursday, with 15 fire trucks and six ambulances being pulled out of service daily on a rotating basis citywide.

A man suspected of driving drunk compounded a previous traffic collision when he crashed into a paramedic rig Saturday night, injuring himself and six people, officials said. Inglewood police officers and a Los Angeles County Fire Department paramedic rig were investigating an earlier collision at the intersection of Hardy Street and Crenshaw Boulevard around 10:20 p.m., said Al Jackson, a supervisor with the county Fire Department.

Rescue worker Rasoul Halool had four bleeding victims in the back of his ambulance and was rushing to save others when a second roadside bomb tore the truck apart. All the patients were killed. The blast sprayed shrapnel into Halool's eyes, neck and chest. He stumbled out of the burning ambulance to find guns pointed at him by U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, who were uncertain at that bloody moment whether Halool was victim or bomber. "Nobody would help me," the ambulance driver recalled.

A company that provides ambulance service in several Orange County cities is violating its contracts by putting too few ambulances on the streets, the Orange County Fire Authority chief said Tuesday. Chip Prather told the Board of Supervisors there was no evidence that the reduced number of ambulances had impeded medical treatment or put anyone in danger. But the chief said Medix Ambulance Service had reduced by one-third the number of ambulances it agreed to provide in the 11 cities it serves.

"Fire Engine Limits Set" (Aug. 19), subsequent letters and "Curbing the Obstructionists" (editorial, Aug. 27), on the L.A. Fire Department setting speed limits for emergency vehicles, overlook a major reason why motorists don't yield: They often have no place to do so. This is definitely a problem on major thoroughfares that now carry more traffic than they were originally designed for, such as Cahuenga Boulevard, the route used by emergency vehicles leaving...

The Ventura City Council gave the go-ahead Monday to the city manager to apply for a state grant to install a high-tech system that would help emergency vehicles avoid accidents when speeding through intersections. With the system, when a firetruck, police car or ambulance gets within a quarter of a mile of a traffic light, a special device turns the light green--and lights in the opposite direction red.

An ambulance provider for nearly a dozen Orange County cities wants to reduce the number of vehicles by a third from the number agreed to in a September contract. Medix Ambulance Service officials said fewer ambulances would not affect service. A decision on the contract amendment is expected in March, said Chief Chip Prather of the Orange County Fire Authority, which administers the contract.

The Laker charter jet abruptly aborted an attempted landing at Los Angeles International Airport early Thursday because of a broken wing flap, and landed safely an hour later with dozens of emergency-response vehicles lining the tarmac. After the initial landing attempt, the plane, a reconfigured 737, circled the area for about 45 minutes to exhaust as much fuel as possible in case of a crash landing, a team spokesman said.