To Los Angeles Metropolis Council members looking desperately for cuts amid a funds disaster, the Fireplace Division’s emergency incident technicians are “drivers” whose essential function is chauffeuring battalion chiefs to emergencies.
However LAFD officers say the place is rather more than that. Emergency incident technicians are firefighters who play a key function in coordinating the response to fires, and shedding them would put lives in danger, in response to LAFD interim Chief Ronnie Villanueva.
“That is going to come back again and chunk us. This isn’t a matter of them simply being a driver. It’s not a driver. You need to simply take that out of your minds of transporting somebody someplace,” Villanueva stated, addressing the Metropolis Council’s funds committee at a listening to on Thursday.
5 months after the Palisades fireplace destroyed hundreds of properties and prompted questions on whether or not the Fireplace Division was outfitted to battle such an enormous blaze, the funds committee moved ahead with a advice to chop the emergency incident technician positions.
Of the 42 positions, 27 are at present stuffed. These firefighters wouldn’t lose their jobs however could be reassigned, saving the town greater than $7 million within the subsequent fiscal yr and about $10 million yearly after that, in response to Metropolis Administrative Officer Matt Szabo.
Town is going through a virtually $1-billion funds shortfall largely resulting from rising personnel prices, hovering authorized payouts and a slowdown within the native financial system. Mayor Karen Bass’ 2025-26 funds proposal, which advised shedding greater than 1,600 metropolis workers, didn’t embody reassigning the emergency incident technicians.
The funds committee, which careworn that the general Fireplace Division funds is rising, additionally really helpful nixing Bass’ plan for creating a brand new unit inside the division that will have added 67 workers to handle points stemming from the homelessness disaster.
At Thursday’s funds listening to, Councilmember Tim McOsker, who has two youngsters who’re firefighters, argued for chopping the emergency incident technician place, calling it “mainly an aide.”
When Villanueva requested McOsker to place a value on a firefighter’s life, McOsker stated, “Invaluable.”
“I can say the identical factor about very most of the 1,300 positions we’re chopping, as a result of we’re additionally going to not be doing sidewalks, streets, curbs, gutters, tree trimming, altering out lights, making our communities secure,” McOsker added. “The fact is we now have to steadiness a funds.”
The funds committee has despatched its preliminary suggestions to Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso, the Metropolis Council’s high coverage advisor, who on Friday will current the committee with a full menu of methods for chopping prices whereas preserving as many providers as doable. The committee is then anticipated to finalize its suggestions and ship the proposed funds to the complete council, which should approve a ultimate funds by the top of the month.
On the best way to a scene, a “command crew” consisting of a chief and an emergency incident technician “could be accountable to offer route to the rescue of a trapped firefighter or civilians, firefighter monitoring, and deal with the danger administration of a quickly escalating incident,” Capt. Erik Scott, an LAFD spokesperson, stated in an announcement.
“The extra complicated the incident, the larger the necessity for Emergency Incident Technicians to facilitate emergency incident mitigation,” Scott added, with the forms of incidents together with “construction fires, brush fires, multi-casualty incidents, earthquakes, practice collisions, constructing collapses, lively shooter, airport and port emergencies and so forth.”
Gregg Avery, who retired final yr as a battalion chief after 37 years with the LAFD, stated that in his profession, emergency incident technicians have been known as aides, then workers assistants. However Avery considered them extra as companions. The 4 EITs who labored for him usually helped him with strategic selections, and he inspired them to query his selections and supply recommendation.
“The EIT occurs to drive the automobile. However to name them a driver is a bit demeaning and a bit minimizing,” he stated.
Whereas an EIT drives a battalion chief to a hearth or different emergency, each work the radios to develop methods for tackling the state of affairs, in response to Avery and a video produced by the LAFD. They convey with fireplace commanders, firefighters on the scene, cops and companies such because the Division of Water and Energy and the U.S. Forest Service.
On the scene, they work with the incident commander to maintain monitor of firefighters and different personnel — an important function in chaotic conditions when forgetting a single firefighter’s location might be deadly, each Villanueva and Avery stated.
However on the Thursday funds listening to, Villanueva struggled to articulate what EITs do after they aren’t responding to scenes.
“They go to fireplace stations they usually ship mail. They speak concerning the present occasions. If there’s any questions they have to be requested … the EIT will help with these. They do staffing,” Villanueva stated.
In line with Avery, EITs act as liaisons between firefighters and battalion chiefs. Since they’re firefighters themselves and members of the labor union, they will relate to the rank-and-file, Avery stated.
The EIT positions have been reduce as soon as earlier than — in 2010, throughout one other main funds crunch within the Nice Recession. Since then, the division has been including them again.
Avery remembers working with out an EIT after the cuts.
“Emergency operations have been profoundly totally different and never nearly as good,” he stated.
