Chris Cooper, PRNC Board Member and fireman, reports that our Fire Station on Tampa (8) is in jeopardy of losing the Rescue Ambulance. The City Council is hearing a proposal supported by Councilman Greig Smith to close 12 ambulances Citywide. Fire Station 8 is on the list of ambulances to be closed at night.

This is a resource we need here 24/7 in Porter Ranch especially at night when our population is at maximum capacity when citizens return home from school and work. There are a variety of other reasons to keep this ambulance open including response time increase, reduced resource coverage, etc.

Further, Pat Pope, PRNC Board Member, said that he was recently at Fire Station 28 about another matter and reports, "At this very minute (March 4th about 5pm) there is no staffed ambulance in Porter Ranch. The firefighters detailed to rescue 828 actually are assigned to the bulldozer unit in Sherman Oaks at Fire Station 88. They spend the night at Fire Station 28, but most days they are in Sherman Oaks, and Rescue 828 is unmanned. Today rescue 808 at Fire Station 8 was also out of service. Apparently this happens more often than we know about.

Pat Pope noted, "During the City Council debate on March 4 about the Fire budget, Councilwoman Hahn asked the fire chief about the fact that each battalion chief and each division chief has a driver that takes the chief to the fire. Clearly, that person does more than drive, but in a budget crunch might it not be better for a chief to drive himself instead of closing down ambulances and engine companies?"