While the City is trying to make heads or tails of how LAFD response times are calculated, Porter Ranch has benefitted with the restoration of ambulance services. According to a Daily News article on March 19, 2012, the Fire Department arrived to emergencies in Porter Ranch withing five minutes only 30% of the time. No matter how accurate or inaccurate the 30% number may be, it gives you a feel for level of service Porter Ranch has been receiving. National guidelines call for arriving within five minutes 90% of the time.
Empty parking space for missing Ambulance at LAFD 8
While hearing the actual data is shocking, it is not very surprising. The PRNC has taken up fire services concerns several times as our services continue to be cut. Last April the community protested at the PRNC meeting when the Basic Life Support ambulance was removed from Fire Station 8 on Tampa and one was unstaffed during the day at Fire Station 28 on Corbin. View the April 2011 staffing changes. April 2010 members of the board expressed concern about initial reductions to the ambulance services from Fire Station 8. March 2010 Staffing Report. The board sent a letter and the Councilman worked to restore services.
Having trouble understanding LAFD terminology? View our primer on LAFD staffing and lingo.
Board member Pat Pope is quoted in the Daily News article mentioned above:
...there's concern in the community about receiving adequate ambulances services. The biggest issue, he said, is the desire to have more advanced life saving ambulances, which are equipped to treat more serious calls. The city currently has 89, according to officials, and hasn't lost any during the recent budget cuts.
Additionally, he points out that the fire station in Porter Ranch doesn't have the most advanced Jaws of Life equipment. It must come from a neighboring area. Pope said the restoration of a full-time staffed ambulance at Station 28 is a good start.
"It's not what we need, but it's better than what we have," Pope said. "There's a general feeling that people aren't getting what they paid for."
He explains that recently the two firefighters who staff the Basic Life Support Ambulance 828 on Corbin in the evening, spend the daytime in the mountains of Sherman Oaks at Fire Station 88 maintaining equipment and clearing brush throughout the city. The announced change calls for this crew to be at Fire Station 109 in Encino 24x7 now. As of April Porter Ranch Fire Station 28 will have a crew of two firefighters at Fire Station 28 to staff the ambulance 24x7. Unfortunately, this ambulance is only a Basic Life Support Ambulance, responding to lesser health emergencies. With Porter Ranch's aging population, what is needed is an Advanced Life Support Ambulance, which is the kind that responds to breathing problems, heart attacks and strokes.
From the LA Times article by Steve Lopez on March 21, 2012:
Pat Pope of the Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council isn't surprised. He said he didn't like what he heard last spring when Cummings visited the neighborhood to explain how the department would try to keep them covered despite cutting back on equipment and staffing.
"I don't think he said this was good, he just said this was better than rolling brownouts," said Pope, referring to the previous budget-cutting model.
But Pope, a retired telephone company employee, said he believes public safety is at greater risk in Porter Ranch in the last few months with the loss of a hook and ladder truck, an ambulance and an engine company.
"There are no paramedics north of the 118 now between the 405 and the city limits to the west," he said.
Lopez's most salient observation about LAFD was its focus on supplying fire services, when what is demanded is health services:
And more than 80% of all calls are for medical problems, yet the department is still built to fight fires. That means that lumbering, gas-guzzling big rigs with large crews often go racing through the city as the first responders. Are there ways to retool?
