First responseLos Angeles mayor says fire response times are too slow

Citing new research and statistics, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti claimed that previous fire station response times “stunk” and that with a new program in place, the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) would be able to cut those responses considerably.

As Los Angeles Daily News reports, the first set of findings from the new FireStat program, had revealed that the responses were considerably slower than what former Fire Chief Brian Cummings had been reporting. Following the revelation, Garcetti asked Cummings to step down.

“This is a new department driven by metrics,” Garcetti said at a news conference alongside new Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas, “I believe using this data, we can cut seconds, tens of seconds off response times. Those seconds could be the matter of life and death for someone.”

The LAFD is the first fire department in the country to utilize response time information and metrics and also make them publicly available. The department will post those times on its website, including the average response length and those for each of the 102 stations within the city.

Citing an increase in times over the past year, Garcetti said that the new data will aid the improvements and refocus the mission of the LAFD.

“One of the things of my back-to-basics service is getting people service,” he said, “Nothing is more of a core service than calling 9-1-1 and having someone respond. The days of the Los Angeles Fire Department playing second fiddle within the city are over.”

Additionally, the department is working to hire new firefighters and enhance management accountability.

“Some changes already have been made as a result of the data collected,” added Terrazas, “We know Venice Beach is very busy and crowded and difficult to get through. What we’ve done is put paramedics on bicycle patrols to get through the crowds.”

The FireStat program is modeled after the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) CompSat program that is already in use, and puts top commanders and staff together on a monthly basis to discuss emerging trends that can be gleaned.

Though the LAFD has not yet had a leadership meeting to discuss the metrics, they have incorporated the program into 80 percent of the fire stations and are working to have it running at full capacity soon.

The generated averages do not take into account the time it takes for a station to receive a call, or the response time for units already in the field.

With exceptions made for those stations that have a broader coverage area or must deal with difficult roads and terrain, the majority of facilities took roughly a minute-and-a-quarter to leave the station and roughly four minutes to travel to an emergency.