Whenever public safety operations and staffing change, important questions arise. The most common and in this case, important questions are "why?" and "how does this affect us?"

As every resident of Los Angeles knows, the city has been struggling for several years with greatly reduced revenues, resulting in a financial and operational crisis for the entire community. This economic downturn has hit many agencies hard, including the Los Angeles Fire Department. The crisis isn't limited to LA, either. Across the country, in cities from California to New Jersey, Indiana to Texas, firefighters have been losing their jobs and fire stations have been closing.

In Los Angeles, 96% of the budget for the LAFD is dedicated to firefighter and support-staff salaries. The reason for this expense mix has been to ensure public safety. The city has required that the Department cut its budget by nearly 30% over what it was in FY2009.

Many citizens have said, "find the money to ensure there are no changes to public safety." And nobody understands the threat to public safety better than someone who has watched their home burn, or has been transported to a hospital as a result of illness or injury. Your Los Angeles Fire Department understands this, and it also understands that revenue must flow from local Government.

Since August of 2009, your Los Angeles Fire Department has been operating with reduced services, in a program called the Modified Coverage Plan, or MCP. This plan was implemented as an urgent method of containing an unexpected and significant budget shortfall. It is still in effect today, and from day one of its implementation, firefighters, council members, and citizens have asked that something be done to eliminate the MCP.

Learn about the MCP [ click ]

Our challenge has been to find a way to ensure the City of Los Angeles receives the best protection possible, while also meeting the established requirement of operating with a budget that has been reduced due to a lack of tax and other revenue.

The most common way out is to cut jobs and close fire stations. If the Fire Department were a typical business, people would lose their jobs.

That was not acceptable to us. This is not a typical business -This is your Los Angeles Fire Department.

Our answer, achieved after tireless research, evaluation, analysis, and debate, is a new method of operating the department.

This new Deployment Plan (the Plan) is highly important for a number of reasons, including:

• No fire stations are closed
• No firefighters lose their jobs
• No apparatus are being removed from any fire station
• Every fire station service area maintains both a fire engine and a Paramedic resource
  
• The Plan is continually monitored and adjusted, with every emergency response, every day, 365 days a year

We started with the basic foundation for fire and life safety protection:
The Engine Company and the Rescue Ambulance/Paramedic

Did you know that 85% of all emergency responses are medical in nature? Our EMS responses often top 900 in a single day. We typically transport more than 500 people to area hospitals every day.

Every fire station in the City of Los Angeles will continue to be staffed by a full complement of firefighters and emergency medical personnel. Through our careful analysis and computer modeling, we determined areas where an increase in medical readiness would be important. As a result, we've increased the number of "assessment engines," "assessment light forces," and ambulances in key fire service districts. That means more Paramedics across the city.

Learn about the deployment and use of apparatus and firefighters [ click ]

From that point, we established a process to help us use the funds available to the LAFD more effectively. The great opportunity provided by the current financial conditions is to improve the way in which the budget is allocated. Our ongoing, primary focus is the safety and wellness of the nearly five million people who live, work, and visit in Los Angeles every day. Using new and sophisticated software, we gathered data from 2007 through this year and evaluated how the LAFD was responding, to what type of incidents, and with what frequency.

Change is part of life - and change is here for the LAFD. As we've traveled around the City of Los Angeles meeting with neighborhood and community groups, local Government officials, and union leadership, we've discovered that a number of misconceptions have been raised regarding this new plan.

Get the TRUE FACTS regarding the new LAFD Deployment Plan [ click ]

Los Angeles does have its share of fires. Every day. On average, we respond to more than 100 calls or fire or non-medical emergencies every day - and we fight 10 - 15 fires a day.

Did you know that regardless of where in the city a fire breaks out, we knock it down (put it out) within 15 minutes of receiving the first 911 call for help? The new Plan should not change that key number: 15 minutes. It's true that the apparatus may come from different directions, but we've thought of that. Our computer modeling, in collaboration with our historical information tracking helps us know where the greatest risk of fire breaking out exists. And regardless of where it does break out, we will continue to have the ability to mass equipment and personnel anywhere within minutes.

Learn about the technology used to develop the new Deployment Plan [ click ]

The result is a new operational plan that takes advantage of technology, our history, the service needs of each local community, and the city’s budgetary requirements. The proposed Plan creates a more flexible and highly responsive organization that maximizes public and firefighter safety, while realigning our resource footprint to match the response needs of each local service area.

Change is a difficult issue to master. Is this plan perfect? It is not. Is this the plan we want to implement? It is not.

Will this plan work? It will and in so doing, will provide the closest model to effective public safety given the constraints defined herein.

The realities of today's complex society demand that we act and do so with authority and focus. The safety of the public is our 24/7 concern. We know many of you have questions, and we've worked diligently to listen to you, our council leadership, and our firefighters.

Read Frequently Asked Questions [ click ]

Let's recap and ensure we communicate the importance of the Plan and why it makes sense in today's economic climate:

• A fire engine and a minimum of one Paramedic in every fire station service area
• All special services, including Air Operations, Fireboats, ARFF (Airport), US&R, Swift Water Rescue, and HazMat remain in service
  
• An elimination of the MCP, providing increased stability for our firefighters and the public
• An ongoing daily analysis of emergency responses, using the latest technology
• A plan that meets the budget requirements set forth by the city, not just for this year, but for the foreseeable future
• A savings of $197 million dollars over three years, without sacrificing a single firefighter's job, or closing a single fire station
• A response metric that will see firefighters on scene at any emergency, typically in less than five minutes

As we move into the 21^st Century’s second decade, the LAFD will continue to evolve, focusing on the appropriate use of technology, training, and readiness. As the City of Los Angeles regains revenue and allocates additional funding to the LAFD, we will expand our resource footprint, as appropriate. At the same time, we'll have the benefit of our expanded use of technology, improved efficiencies, and as such, our ability to serve the citizens of Los Angeles will grow and improve at an unprecedented pace.

The Plan officially goes into effect on July 5, 2011.

If you have questions regarding the new Deployment Plan, you may email us at: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

To learn more about LAFD terminology, please review our online glossary [ click ].

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