CNN
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Less than a month before wildfires ravaged Los Angeles, a group of longtime firefighters gathered at City Hall to demand more resources. They were at a “breaking point,” one said. Another revealed that fire trucks worth millions of dollars were sitting idle because budget cuts reduced the number of mechanics available to repair them.
“I’m going to say what people can’t say,” said Freddy Escobar, president of the city’s firefighters union and a veteran firefighter. “If we cut a job, if we close a station…the people of Los Angeles will pay the ultimate sacrifice and someone will die.”
It appears firefighters’ concerns about resources weren’t off the mark. A CNN analysis of the most recent data available on the 10 largest U.S. cities and other comparable departments shows that the Los Angeles Fire Department is less staffed than almost every other major city, making it difficult to cope with everyday emergencies and larger disasters such as wildfires.
Despite being located in one of the most fire-prone areas in the country, the LAFD has less than one firefighter per 1,000 residents. That compares to cities like Chicago, Dallas and Houston, where staffing levels are closer to two firefighters for the same number of residents. Among larger cities, only San Diego has fewer firefighters per capita.
Off the coast of Los Angeles, the city of San Francisco has more than 1,800 firefighters serving approximately 1.5 million residents in the city and neighboring communities, while Los Angeles has approximately 3,500 firefighters assigned to service a city of nearly 4 million inhabitants.
Experts said no fire department in the world would have been able to handle such a perfect storm that resulted in the devastating Los Angeles fires, which burned more than 40,000 acres, destroyed more than 12,000 structures and caused at least 24 deaths.
Los Angeles firefighters were joined by crews from across the state, including from the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which covers areas outside the city, including hard-hit Altadena. But images of residents in some neighborhoods trying to save their homes with garden hoses and no firefighters in sight have sparked a new debate over whether city officials should have planned better and invested more in the LAFD, and what should be done to be better positioned for the LAFD. next emergency.
One of the speakers who joined firefighters at last month’s Fire Commission meeting was City Council member Traci Park. She warned that resources were being stretched “beyond the chasm” despite a dangerously growing risk of wildfires.
“Time and again, Los Angeles’ elected leaders have failed to make meaningful investments in our public safety and, as a result, Angelenos are suffering the consequences,” Park said.
Just 21 days later, the community of Pacific Palisades, located in the Park Municipal District, found itself at the epicenter of one of the fires.
Los Angeles firefighters say a lack of resources is a daily concern that goes beyond their ability to fight wildfires. They are also responsible for responding to structure fires, traffic accidents and medical emergencies, which have increased amid a worsening homeless crisis.
In a memo late last year, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley also expressed concerns that the fire department’s staffing levels were half that of a typical fire department professional, based on criteria recommended by the National Fire Protection Association.
In the memo, which the city has since removed from its website, Crowley writes that the city’s population has grown from about 2.5 million in 1960 to nearly 4 million in 2020. Yet the city today has fewer fire stations than back then, even as firefighters respond to a quadrupling in call volume.
Crowley wrote that, based on one analysis, the agency would need 62 new fire stations and hundreds of additional firefighters to meet the national average for densely populated city fire departments.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has been criticized for the department’s recent budget cuts, even though she defended them at a news conference last week as the product of “tough budget times” and said that “the impact of our budget really didn’t affect what we did.” I crossed. She also said additional funds were allocated later, ultimately representing an increase in the agency’s budget. Bass and the fire department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings from CNN.
The firefighters union says the agency’s negligence is a problem that long predates Bass.
“It’s not just one budget cycle. It’s not just one mayor. This has been the case for decades. We’ve been talking about this for years now,” Escobar, the union president, said in an interview with CNN. “It is sad that it took this natural disaster and tragedy to highlight what we have been saying for decades.”
In 2011, Los Angeles ranked near last in a ranking of fire department staffing levels among the nation’s 40 largest cities. The study, conducted by a New York City union, looked at metrics such as the number of firefighters, stations and engines.
In pictures: Wildfires spread across Los Angeles County
Last year, the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, a nonprofit whose mission is to support the city’s firefighters, released a report with examples highlighting how the department was struggling. Firehouses that were supposed to accommodate about six firefighters, for example, are now sleeping up to double that, according to the report. A single mini-fridge was used to store food for an entire station for all their shifts, the report said, and one washing machine was used for more than 16 firefighters who have to clean their uniforms almost every day.
“City budget constraints and limited resources mean that firefighters often bear the costs of urgent repairs or replacement of basic items, such as washing machines, coffee makers and ice makers,” the statement said. report, noting that nearly half of all stations have less than $1,000 in resources. the money available in the station’s accounts, which could quickly be drained by a number of necessary repairs.
Park, the city councilwoman who sounded the alarm about the lack of resources last month, told CNN she hopes “this is a wake-up call” and an opportunity to rethink how the city prioritizes its competing needs. She spent the last week looking at the damage and talking with firefighters who told her they had never seen anything like the situation that happened.
“I don’t know if (more resources) would have made a difference for this particular fire. But on average here in Los Angeles, we don’t have what we need,” she said in an interview. “They miraculously did more with less…but it’s not fair to them.” … We owe it to them and their families to make sure they are safe and have what they need.”
Do you have any information or experience to share about the Los Angeles fires? Send us an email at blake.ellis@cnn.com And melanie.hicken@cnn.com.
CNN’s Yahya Abou-Ghazala contributed to this report.