Honorable Mayor and Members of the Hermosa Beach City Council Regular Meeting of April 24, 2018
Title
LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE SERVICES
AND MCCORMICK AMBULANCE UPDATE
(Emergency Services Coordinator Brandy Villanueva)
Body
Recommended Action:
Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Hermosa Beach City Council receive and file an update regarding Los Angeles County Fire Department and McCormick Ambulance services for the period of December 30, 2017 - March 31, 2018.
Body
Background:
The Los Angeles County Fire Department became the Hermosa Beach fire services provider on December 30, 2017. On the same day, McCormick Ambulance became the medical transport provider working alongside Los Angeles County Fire in response to emergency medical calls. In addition to responding to emergency calls, Los Angeles County Fire provides film permits, special event and fire prevention services to the city.
Analysis:
Operations
The City of Hermosa Beach is located within Los Angeles County Fire Department Division 1, Central Region in Battalion 18. Battalion 18 is composed of seven fire stations including Station 21 - Lawndale, Station 100 - Hermosa Beach, Station 158 and Station 159 - Gardena, Station 160, Station 161, and Station 162 - Hawthorne. Station 161 is Battalion 18 headquarters and the location where the Battalion Chiefs respond from and Fire Prevention is stationed. Station 100 has been assigned to Hermosa Beach and each Hermosa Beach apparatus has been marked with 100 to indicate a City resource. Chief Anthony Whittle is the Regional Deputy Fire Chief and Chief Scott Hale is the Division Assistant Fire Chief. There are three Battalion Chiefs who are assigned to manage the three shifts of fire personnel and respond to incidents in the City and three Hermosa Beach Fire Captains who are responsible for the daily operations of Station 100.
During the first quarter of 2018 (January 1, 2018 - March 31, 2018), Los Angeles County Fire Department responded to 430 incidents with an average response time of 4.8 minutes. Average Response Time is defined as the time that the first-arriving units (excluding Lifeguard units) arrive to each incident and includes emergency and non-emergency calls.
In addition to providing emergency services to Hermosa Beach, Los Angeles County Fire has updated the automatic aid agreements with neighboring jurisdictions including Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, El Segundo and Torrance. Attachment 1 indicates that surrounding jurisdictions, labeled as Area G Cities have responded into Hermosa Beach to provide automatic aid 11 times during the quarter while Los Angeles County Fire, labeled as the Fire District has responded 74 times into Area G cities to provide automatic aid during the quarter.
Special Events
Los Angeles County Fire Department’s Carson Fire Prevention office is assigned to work with the City’s special event team. The first special event that Los Angeles County Fire assisted with was the planning and inspection of the Chamber of Commerce New Year’s Eve event on December 31, 2017. The Fire Prevention Inspectors have continued to provide excellent service to both city staff and event planners. The special event team has planned for select Impact Level II and all Impact Level III events for January through May of 2018.
Fire Prevention
Fire Prevention is broken into two categories: Annual Business Fire Inspections and Plan Checks. Annual Business Fire Inspections will be managed by Station 100 with inspections commencing on April 1, 2018 with an anticipated completion date of July 1, 2018. Plan checks are being referred to Los Angeles County Fire Prevention Office.
Film Permit
Community Resources manages the City’s film permit process. They currently work with the Los Angeles County Fire Department Film Permit office in Sylmar to process filming applications in a timely and efficient manner. Over the course of the past three months, there have been a total of 13 film permits submitted and processed. Both City of Hermosa Beach and Los Angeles County Fire have approved all applications.
McCormick Ambulance
McCormick Ambulance was selected through the RFP process and began providing service to the City of Hermosa Beach on December 30, 2017.
Fiscal Implications:
Funding for fire and ambulance services are included in the City’s budget.
Attachments:
1. First Quarter Auto-Mutual Aid
Respectfully Submitted by: Brandy Villanueva, Emergency Services Coordinator
Concur: Scott Hale, Los Angeles County Fire Department, Division Assistant Fire Chief
Concur: John Jalili, Interim City Manager
Noted for Fiscal Impact: Viki Copeland, Finance Director