Copyright 2005 The Times-Picayune Publishing Company
Longer distances give fires time to burn
By WALT PHILBIN
Times-Picayune (New Orleans)
NEW ORLEANS — Four months after Hurricane Katrina, only 12 of the New Orleans Fire Department’s 33 fire stations and two-thirds of its fire apparatus — including engines, ladder trucks and other firefighting vehicles — are in working order.
But the city’s 694 firefighters — about 97 percent of the department’s pre-storm force — are holding their own against blazes that have generally been more involved and harder to extinguish because of the longer distances they have to travel from their temporary engine houses, fire officials said.
Though fire department records show the number of fires is down, “fires have greater lead-time, and therefore tend to be larger,” resulting possibly in more multiple-alarm fires, said Deputy Chief Gary Fank.
The average response time continues to get shorter — it’s now within 30 seconds of what Superintendent Charles Parent feels is acceptable — and is much improved from the horrendous first weeks after Katrina, when it was sometimes impossible to negotiate flooded streets to respond. Firefighters often were forced to watch helplessly as blazes destroyed large chunks of real estate until they burned themselves out.
The department is fully prepared to handle any fireworks-related incidents on New Year’s Eve, Capt. Terry Hardy said.
Firefighters still face low water pressure and other problems that call for unusual procedures, especially in certain areas of the city.
When a fire is reported in either the Lower 9th Ward or eastern New Orleans, where so many main water lines still are unrepaired, officials automatically dispatch one of three helicopters the department has contracted with two private companies to help fight fires, Fank said.
It’s not uncommon to see a helicopter above the New Orleans skyline dangling a basket-shaped container from a long sling. They fly back and forth from inner-city canals to burning buildings where the container opens, dousing the blaze.
The difficulties are not restricted to eastern New Orleans, which is matched by Lakeview in the number of firehouses knocked out of commission by the hurricane. More fire trucks were lost in Lakeview than in eastern New Orleans, Fank said.
There and in the Lower 9th Ward neighborhoods, the Fire Department has had to be resourceful, adapting makeshift engine houses to stage fire crews and equipment. To maintain adequate coverage in Lakeview, for example, the Fire Department still is using a Lake Vista elementary school, St. Pius X, as a makeshift engine house.
The department is putting up engine crews temporarily in Audubon Park to serve areas near Carrollton and Claiborne avenues that lost an engine house in the storm, and at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Bywater, after the station at Poland and St. Claude avenues was damaged.
In the Lower 9th Ward, an engine company is staged around the clock at North Claiborne and Caffin avenues, having moved from Holy Cross High School, where one was assigned in November until school officials needed the space, Fank said.
In eastern New Orleans, the only “fire station” now is at the Fire Department’s training center on Michoud Boulevard, where firefighters sleep overnight and park their engines, trucks and water tenders.
Some of the department’s damaged fire houses are being restored, but others, like Engine 31’s quarters in Venetian Isles, are “little more than four posts,” Fank said.
With much greater distances to respond, it’s not uncommon for firefighters to encounter blazes well under way.
Because of that, firefighters say, tactics have been modified somewhat since Katrina. Firefighters place a lesser emphasis on trying to save the building where the fire originated if there is no threat to human life and the fire is dangerous. In those instances, there is little reason to risk firefighters’ lives by sending them inside to try to aggressively fight the blaze, Capt. Terry Hampton said.
Despite the damaged equipment and reduced forces, the Fire Department continues to try to reduce response times, and has achieved some success.
From Nov. 30 through Dec. 15, average response time was at six minutes -- barely meeting the industry standard. The National Fire Protection Association recommends fire departments respond at least 90 percent of the time within six minutes of receiving the initial call.
Parent wasn’t satisfied with meeting the minimum recommendation, however.
The Fire Department has improved on that standard in the past couple of weeks, with response times between Dec. 15 and Dec. 29 improving to a 5½-minute average, Fank said. He said Parent wants to lower that response time by another 30 seconds.
“We would like to respond within three minutes,” Fank said, “but if we get it to under five, that’s considered acceptable” under the post-Katrina circumstances.
Meanwhile, many of the 694 New Orleans firefighters currently working continue to be separated from their families, as they spend their down time on a docked cruise ship. Fire officials estimated that 75 to 80 percent of firefighters lost their homes.
The computer-aided dispatch system continues to be down, with dispatchers now moved from a small room at the Decatur Street central station to trailers at the site of the proposed new communications center, 100 City Park Ave. They are using makeshift charts and personal computers to keep track of where resources are.