Firefighting

It is unfortunate that the writer of your editorial "Shooting Down a Bad Idea" (Nov. 7) did not bother to attend the Board of Supervisors meeting to listen to or contribute to the discussion regarding the possible redeployment of resources and firefighting equipment, including aircraft. When I toured the Altadena fire area last week, it was reported that the U. S. Forest Service had removed two of its fixed-wing aircraft to North Carolina. The purpose of my motion was to create a dialogue among affected agencies to determine what can be done to expedite emergency relief in the event of a disaster.

Philadelphia officials said Tuesday that they've opened investigations into the fire at a vacant warehouse that led to the deaths of two firefighters. The investigations are still in the early phase as officials seek to find a cause for the fire, a spokeswoman for Dist. Atty. Seth Williams said by telephone Tuesday. The city is also examining other buildings belonging to the developers who owned the warehouse and similar buildings like the one where the fire started about 3:15 a.m. Monday.

Regarding Gordon Dillow's article "A Family Tradition" (South Bay, June 23) about firefighting families--remember, there is another reason these relatives all become firefighters: It's called "nepotism." This phenomenon is highly prevalent in just about every California fire department, and I know. I spent over a year working for L.A. City Fire Department, until I realized that without a relative on the job, career advancement is very difficult. Before the media again glamorizes these men, and paints them as pristine heroes, let's realize--there is a flip side to every coin.

Los Angeles' top budget official raised the specter of bankruptcy Friday in a sweeping report that calls for new taxes, possible layoffs and the privatization of some city services. Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said rising employee costs combined with flat-lining revenues have left the city in a precarious position. Even after reducing its workforce by 4,900 positions in recent years, the city faces a $222-million budget shortfall, he said, a figure that is expected to rise to $427 million by 2014-15.

Re "Could a Freeze Gun Put Flames on Ice?," Sept. 3: While I am sure the inventors of the firefighting blimp and freeze gun want to help, I think they need to look into some basics of wilderness firefighting. The normal weather conditions that accompany the biggest fires may prevent the blimps' use. The training that most wilderness firefighters go through teaches them the basics of fire behavior and fire attack. The designers would be well served to go through some of this training so they can better understand the basics.

As fire season picks up, the continued closure of Kanan-Dume Road may have "significant" consequences on firefighting efforts, Assistant County Fire Chief Steven Alexander warned Thursday. The road was closed last year after heavy rains and remains shut, with the financially strapped city unable to raise funds for repairs. "There are two emergency gates on the road.

Gov. Pete Wilson, with a swipe at lawmakers who held up the bill for more than five weeks, signed a $71-million measure Friday to let the state firefighting agency pay its bills. The measure had been held up for weeks in a legislative squabble over whether to give state workers a 3% raise.

At the top of Mike Jaramillo's wish list are steady salaries and health insurance for members of the Aztecs firefighting crew based in Boyle Heights. A few miles away, in South Los Angeles, Kevin Nelson speaks of providing a van, uniforms and other equipment for the Highlanders crew. The two men, who run independent programs affiliated with the U.S. Forest Service, want desperately to help young men and women stay away from Los Angeles gang life and out of prison.

A relentless brush fire has consumed more than 9,700 rugged acres of canyons and foothills in the Santa Clara Valley but shifting winds drove the flames away from the homes they had threatened on Tuesday. Schools in both Fillmore and Piru reopened Tuesday, although most physical education classes and recesses were held indoors.

A U.S. Senate panel has scheduled a hearing next week on proposals to repeal a decades-old U.S. Forest Service policy that bars its firefighting aircraft from flying night missions, a prohibition that some say allowed last summer's disastrous Station blaze to rage out of control. Among those set to testify at the Wednesday session is U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), who has called for a congressional investigation into the response to the Station fire and asked lawmakers to require the Forest Service to reconsider its ban on night helicopter flights, which was imposed in the 1970s after a crash.

In a new escalation of the controversy over Los Angeles Fire Department response times, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's top lawyer accused the city attorney's office Thursday of improperly advising fire officials to keep some performance data secret. Brian Currey, the mayor's chief counsel, accused City Atty. Carmen Trutanich's office of blocking the release of detailed data showing how quickly firefighters arrive at emergencies. Among other things, Currey complained that the city's lawyers warned fire officials that they could face criminal charges for disclosing information that has been routinely distributed in the past, including the locations of emergencies.

Last week, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the city's fire chief said there's no cause for worry about slower response times after severe cutbacks at LAFD. So why am I still worried? Partly, it's because there still hasn't been a good explanation for the mumbo jumbo we've been fed about the different formulas used to determine response times. My colleagues Kate Linthicum, Robert Lopez and Dave Zahniser have reported that the Fire Department gave misleading information to city officials, reporting that response time was within five minutes 80% of the time when the real number was closer to 60%. Nobody was lying, we're told.

When the machine swallowed her hand, slicing off one finger and mangling the rest, Tania Wafer's co-workers tried frantically to stop the bleeding as a supervisor dialed 911. Hang on, they told her as she slid in and out of consciousness on the floor of the printing plant. The ambulance will come soon. It didn't. Wafer waited nearly 45 minutes for Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics to arrive because of ongoing problems with the agency's emergency dispatch system. The dismemberment occurred March 7, when a brief equipment failure left dispatchers unable to alert fire stations.

Reporting from San Francisco -- Jerry Lee ran his battered hand along the side beam of a 35-foot extension ladder. This particular workhorse of the San Francisco Fire Department — from Truck 5, Station 5 — was showing serious wear and tear. It had been dropped on the job in the middle of January and could no longer be trusted to bear a firefighter's weight. "There's a crack they're concerned about," Lee said, tracing the offending scar with his thumbnail. "I'll open the break so I can get some glue in there.

A shooting and fire Thursday afternoon at a house in East Hollywood left two people dead, including the gunman, and three others seriously wounded. Authorities said the incident was the result of domestic violence. The wounded, two women and a man, all in their 30s, were each shot in the upper torso. They were hospitalized in serious condition, but officials said all three are expected to survive. All were conscious and able to talk, police said. Los Angeles Police Lt. Andy Neiman said several police and firefighters put themselves at risk of being shot or injured in the fire to help rescue the three survivors, who were pulled from a front entryway while the fire burned in the back of the house.

When firefighters arrived at the $11-million mansion in the Hollywood Hills last year, they thought they had a chance to save the 13,500-square-foot structure. More than 80 firefighters raced to the home, and 19 were temporarily trapped as the fire spread. Veteran firefighter Glenn Allen was on the ground floor when several hundred pounds of plaster and lumber fell on him. His colleagues dug him out using chainsaws to cut through the debris, but his injuries were so severe that he died two days later.

Re "RAWS Data," Aug. 23 In the article on fire safety and firefighting, the brush clearance in fire zones is emphasized. Directly above the text is a photo of a Fire Department weather station. It is quite clearly shown that there has been no brush clearance around the weather station. Quite an example! ROBERT E. MUNSEY, Winnetka

Homes and other structures were burning late Thursday evening in Leona Valley, an unincorporated town of 2,200 people that was evacuated earlier in the day because of the fast-moving Crown fire. Inspector Matt Levesque, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Fire Department, said the blaze has burned more than 4,500 acres since it started this afternoon. He said the fire is now generating its own wind, which can hamper firefighting efforts. The number of burning structures and whether they are homes or outbuildings has not been determined.

After taking a beating in the investment markets, two Los Angeles city employee pension funds have produced some good news: Their performance improved enough during the last fiscal year to help provide $90 million in much-needed budget relief. The strong performance of the two funds, combined with increased retirement contributions from the City Hall workforce and other factors, will reduce this year's scheduled payment to the two retirement systems from $948 million to $858 million, City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana said in a report released Thursday.

A "major emergency" fire that consumed most of a two-story office building Monday at a ConocoPhillips oil refinery was knocked down and did not affect any other refinery facilities, officials said. The knockdown was declared shortly after 8 a.m., nearly four hours after the fire was reported, according to Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Matt Spence. A total of 166 firefighters battled the blaze, which was limited to an administrative building. "This free-standing structure was located some distance away from the refinery itself," Spence said.