LAFD is doing all we can to fight LA fires. But we're dangerously understaffed. | Opinion
As a 35-year firefighter I have never seen such devastation. It was caused by unprecedented winds – but perpetual understaffing and underresourcing created the perfect storm of destruction.
As a proud 35-year veteran and current captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department, I’ve never experienced the devastation that we're seeing in LA today, where thousands of structures and more than 20,000 of acres have burned in Pacific Palisades. As I write this on Jan. 9, there are also active wildfires in the Sylmar and Woodland Hills neighborhoods of Los Angeles. We recently contained a large fire in the Hollywood Hills.
The obvious questions are, how did we get here? What happened?
Most certainly, unprecedented windstorms of up to 85 mph have had a major impact on these fires, but that’s not the entire story. The perpetual understaffing and underresourcing of the LAFD have combined with these winds to create the perfect storm, resulting in unfathomable losses in our neighborhoods.
Here are some numbers to consider. In 1960, with a population of 2.5 million, we had 112 LAFD fire stations. Today, with a population of nearly 4 million, we have 106 stations. That is according to a comprehensive needs assessment known as a Standards of Cover, produced by the International Association of Fire Fighters and the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, the union of which I am president.
That assessment shows that in 1969, the LAFD responded to 101,000 emergency calls for service. In 2023, we responded to 505,000 emergency calls. We dealt with that fivefold growth with essentially the same number of firefighters responding from fewer fire stations than we had five decades ago.
LAFD is woefully, dangerously understaffed
The national average in big city fire departments is 1.5 to 1.8 firefighters per 1,000 residents, the Standards of Cover says. For example, San Francisco has approximately 1,700 firefighters protecting a population of nearly 1 million people, according to the assessment. Los Angeles has approximately 3,400 firefighters protecting a population of nearly 4 million people.
As they say, the math doesn’t math. The San Francisco Fire Department isn’t overstaffed – they have it right. The LAFD is woefully, dangerously understaffed. We have it wrong.
The LAFD responds to an average of nearly 1,500 emergency incidents every single day. When an unprecedented event like the Palisades Fire hits, we move as many resources as possible to fight that particular fire, but the demand throughout the rest of the city doesn’t suddenly stop.
In fact, on Thursday – just one day after the Palisades Fire began – the LAFD received more than 6,500 emergency calls for service throughout the city that generated more than 3,500 incidents, according to staff who track the numbers.
While hundreds of our firefighters and dozens of our fire engines and trucks were dispatched to fight the Palisades Fire, the rest of our city still demanded our attention.
With at least three active wildfires impacting local communities, the LAFD is working around the clock in grueling, dangerous conditions to save lives and property. In times like these, our firefighters step up and want to do more.
In fact, we have hundreds of off-duty LAFD firefighters who have asked to join the front lines to fight these fires, but we don’t have the resources to accommodate them. The LAFD fleet maintenance yard has 22 engines and 11 trucks offline and out of service, according to staff there. That is because we don’t have enough mechanics to fix them due to civilian budget cuts.
None of this makes sense.
Los Angeles needs to invest in our fire department
The Standards of Cover analysis has yielded the conclusion that the LAFD needs at least 62 additional fire stations, hundreds of additional firefighters and several dozen additional fire trucks, engines and ambulances to properly serve our population.
We can, and will, get through these devastating fires and get to work on the recovery process immediately. As part of this recovery, Los Angeles is going to have to make consequential decisions.
Will we finally invest in our fire department and build the fire stations and hire the firefighters we need to protect Los Angeles? Can we and will we build the fire department that we need as we move toward the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Olympic Games and as we face the everyday public safety challenges that come from our residents?
The people of Los Angeles deserve a fully staffed, first-class fire department. Our firefighters will continue to do our part. It’s time for city leaders to do theirs.
Freddy Escobar, president of the United Firefighters of Los Angeles City Local 112, has served for 35 years as a firefighter in the Los Angeles Fire Department, where he is now a captain II.