Los Angeles County Fire Department

California, USA

as of end of 2020

Database

LACoFD website

deutsche Version

The 'Los Angeles County Fire Department“, abbreviated LACoFD, has been officially established in 1949 as a merger of existing Fire Protection Districts, but is going back to the appointment of the first "County Forester and Fire Waren" in 1920. Its primary jurisdiction are the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. But there are many cities, which do have a contract with the LACoFD for fire services. More than the half of the 88 incorporated cities in LA County are contract cities (plus one in neighboring Orange County)

[1]

Agoura Hills, Artesia, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bell, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Bradbury, Calabasas, Carson, Cerritos, Claremont, Commerce, Covina, Cudahy, Diamond Bar, Duarte, El Monte, Gardena, Glendora, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Hermosa Beach, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Industry, Inglewood, Irwindale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Mirada, La Puente, Lakewood, Lancaster, Lawndale, Lomita, Lynwood, Malibu, Maywood, Norwalk, Palmdale, Palos Verdes Estates, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Pomona, Ranchos Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rosemead, San Dimas, Santa Clarita, Signal Hill, South El Monte, South Gate, Temple City, Vernon, Walnut, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Whittier and La Habra (Orange County)

(The cities of Alhambra, Arcadia, Avalon, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Compton, Culver City, Downey, El Segundo, Glendale, La Habra Heights, La Verne, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, Monrovia, Montebello, Monterey Park, Pasadena, Redondo Beach, San Gabriel, San Marino, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Monica, Sierra Madre, South Pasadena, Torrance and West Covina do have their own fire department, San Fernando contracts with the Los Angeles Fire Department)

, making the LACoFD responsible for more of 4 million of the around 10 million citizens in the county. Last one added is Vernon in October 2020.

In the course of this the LACoFD does not only provide basic fire services any more. It has been a pioneer in prehospital medical services, responsible for the first use of paramedics, documented in the legendary tv series "Emergency!", which purpose was to raise awareness among the people. They do also provide one of the 28 FEMA disaster response task forces

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AZ-TF1, CA-TF1-8, CO-TF1, FL-TF1+2, IN-TF1, MD-TF1, MA-TF1, MO-TF1, NE-TF1, NV-TF1, NJ-TF1, NY-TF1, OH-TF1, PA-TF1, TN-TF1, TX-TF1, UT-TF1, VA-TF1+2, WA-TF1

, "California Task Force 2". They do respond internationally too, then as „USA-2“.

[3]

USA-1 is „Virginia Task Force 1“

The LACoFD is a professional staffed fire department with 176 fire stations

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another one, Station 181, has been closed since 2012, but seems to be used as an office building

, nine fire camps

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Ea tenth one, Camp 17, is not in use today.

for wildland firefighting, an impressive helicopter fleet for fire and rescue services and the world's largest lifeguard service, model for the tv series "Baywatch".

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Belonging to the „Department of Beaches and Harbors“ in the first seasons.

Just four fire stations are staffed by by „call-firefighters“ (CFF)

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112, 140, 155 and 157. In addition CFFs staff second engines at stations 55, 69, 71, 79 and 117, Station 78 CFFs respond to the incident directly with their private vehicles to support the full-time crew.

, any other station do have one unit staffed full-time minimum.

In daily operations three types of units are used mainly. Engines, quints and squads. The engine is the basic unit, responding to fire, rescue and medical incidents. They are staffed by a captain, an engineer or firefighter specialist and one to two firefighters. There are also engines staffed with just two personnel. Quints

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Abbreviated from „Quintuple Combination Pumper“, serving five functions: Pump, tank, hoses, aerial und ground ladders

are staffed as three-man-units minimum. Crew members of Engines and Quints can be qualified as paramedics, making these units "paramedic assessed". There is also one Truck only

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Truck 13

and three Light Forces

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8, 82 und 170

, consisting of a quint and a non-full-staffed pump engine.

Original paramedic services are provided by paramedic rescue squads. The term "squad" is been used differetly in every jurisdiction. The LACoFD did implement then as a fast response rescue unit. It evolved in the "Emergency!" era to the now-time, non-transport advanced life support unit. Transport services are being delivered by private ambulance companies, utilizing mainly basic life support units. A critical patient has to be accompanied by one of the firefighter paramedics of the squad.

Most responses of the LACoFD are medical today. It has been around 224,000 in 2019, 83,7% of all incidents.

[11]

2019 Statistical Summary, https://fire.lacounty.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2019-Statistical-Summary-May-2020.pdf

The response matrix for every medical incident consists of the nearest engine or quint, a squad and an private ambulance. The engine or quint can cancel a responding squad, if not necessary.

The stations are assigned to 22 battalions

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ÜBERSICHT

. Other overhead units are the nine assistant chiefs and three deputy chiefs (ähnlich A-Dienst), which are day-time positions and on call at night and weekends.

Permanently staffed special units are the three Hazardous Material Units (HazMat) and two Urban Search and Rescue Units (USAR). These units consist of a tractor-trailer and a rescue or hazmat tender and get accompanied by the corresponding engine. USAR 103 also staffs „Heavy Rescue 103“, a rotator boom dispatched to the whole of the county. There is one left of four emergency support teams, which provides two fully equipped firefighters to the scene very fast. The other three units have been disbanded or converted to squads in the last few years.

There are a lot of cross-staffed units, too. Much of them are patrols

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classified as type 6 engines

, some of them being utilized on a regular basis, responding to every incident along with their engine. Water tenders, type 3 engines and the 'Mobile Air and Light' units are there, too. Rare used units are swiftwater rescue and foam units, the last ones mainly used at industrial fires. Two fireboats and many reserve units complete the apparatus of the regular stations.

This is a table providing an overview of unit types:

Type	staffed	Captain	Engineer	Firefighter	FF/PM	BC	AC	DC
Engine	permanent	1	1	0-2	poss. 1-2
Quint	permanent	1	1	1-2	poss. 1
Squad	permanent				2
Battalion	permanent					1
Assistant	daytime						1
Deputy	daytime							1
HazMat	permanent
USAR	permanent
Patrol	permanent/cross			1
EST	permanent				2
Water Tender	cross			1
Engine Type 3	cross	1	1	0-2	poss. 1-2
Mobile Air	cross			1
Swiftwater	cross			1
Foam	cross			1
Boat	cross	1	1	1-2

An important addition regarding the recurring brush fires is the 'Air and Wildland Division'. It is utilizing ten copters, mainly responsible for incidents in the rural areas of the county. All copters are equipped with a water tank, thanks to this being capable used for fire and EMS incidents. The 'Heavy Equipment Unit'

[14]

https://www.facebook.com/LACoFD/posts/lacofd-heavy-equipment-teamthe-lacofd-heavy-equipment-unit-maintains-a-fleet-of-/3669696349720295/

with their ten bulldozers has been established for wildland incidents, too. A dozer team consists of the transport driver, the heavy equipment operator and a swamper, who drives the construction unit and assists with the incident.

[15]

https://www.gxcontractor.com/home/article/21092466/la-county-fires-crack-bulldozer-crews

The fourth part of wildland firefighting are the hand crews. Partly paid 'Fire Suppression Aids' [FSA], partly prison inmates, they respond on foot to make fire breaks, setting counterfires and putting out embers. 28 7-8 member crews are derived from the nine fire camps of the LACoFD

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Camps 2, 8, 9 and 12 are paid, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 19 in cooperation with the CDCR (California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation)

and can be transported by copter, too.

Relatively independent acts the 'Lifeguard Division'. Its main task are water rescue and medical services at the LA County Beaches, getting visited by millions of people every year. Four dedicated paramedic units at the mainland beaches assist the hundreds of lifeguards, staffing towers, response units and boats. Something special are „Baywatch Avalon“ and „Baywatch Isthmus“, being the only paramedic resources on Catalin Island, therefore being equipped with a boat and a squad each.

Call signs are established on a station-specific manner. Every station has an individual number in the range of 1 bis 194, originally ascending by date of establishment, being filled in blocks at consolidations or closing gaps. Some gaps arising of closings are still existing today. Units are called by type, followed by station number ('Engine 1', 'Squad 51', 'Patrol 77'). Second units of a station will be marked by a prefixed 2 or 3 ('Engine 244' at station 44 or 'Engine 317' at station 117). Type 3 engines start with a 4, reserve units with a 5. ('Engine 444' at station 44, 'Engine 5193' at station 193).

Command units are called somewhat different. They are named by the number of the administrative unit. ('Battalion 4', 'Assistant 9', 'Deputy 2'). Copters and heavy equipment unit are numbered consecutively, OES (Office of Emergency Services) units have a statewide numbering ('OES XXX'). Very special is 'Engine 9', which should be be 'Engine 216', but has been renamed in honor of a firefighter of the no longer existing Station 9, who has been killed in the Line of Duty.