City News Service
LOS ANGELES — With the Station Fire continuing to rage out of control, the Los Angeles city Fire Department suspended a modified staffing plan that was implemented earlier this month to cut the agency’s budget.
“On Sunday afternoon, the Station Fire spread into the city of Los Angeles,” Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said. “As a result, interim (fire) Chief Millage Peaks has suspended the department’s Modified Coverage Plan to insure every resource is available to fight this fire and protect those at risk.”
The staffing cuts were implemented Aug. 6 to help reduce a $39 million deficit in the Fire Department’s budget. Under the cuts, the department was not staffing one battalion command team, three emergency medical services battalion offices, 15 fire companies and nine ambulances every day.
The shutdown of resources were occurring on a rotating basis at several different fire stations throughout the city.
The 87 firefighters and emergency personnel who were displaced from their normal shifts were shuffled to other stations to fill vacancies on remaining fire companies and ambulances that would previously have been staffed by off-duty employees working overtime.
The cuts have come under fire from the firefighters’ union — United Firefighters of Los Angeles City — which called it “a cynical effort to leverage us in contract negotiations.”
Villaraigosa said today the city Fire Department has four strike teams battling the Station Fire, and additional resources are being pre-deployed as a precautionary measure.
“The Fire Department has also joined the unified command battling the blaze,” he said.
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