Los Angeles Fire Commission Rejects Fire Chief's Proposal

It has been a scorching year for Southern California. Fire after fire has been started due to dry weather and extreme heat. Just because residents have desperately needed firefighters, however, does not mean that those firefighters will be getting more help.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Fire Commission dealt a serious blow to the Los Angeles Fire Department's hopes of receiving more ambulances for their fire stations. The commission strongly criticized the fire department's proposal, stating that many things were still very unclear about it.

"Because I'm a schoolteacher, I write in red," President Genethia Hudley-Hayes said, waving the chief's report to show how she had marked it up with a red pen. "On every page of this report I had questions. It raised more questions than it gave answers."

It's been a rough past month for Los Angeles fire Chief Brian Cummings. Late last April, Cummings came under fire for his plan to reduce the number of firefighters on each fire truck and instead move them to ambulances.

It is believed that Cummings' proposal to the commission was a way for him to justify reallocating so many firefighters to ambulances. It appears that his plan did not seem necessary to the five civilian members of the Los Angeles Fire Commission.

The rebuke of Cummings' plan represents a break between the usually tight pairing of Hudley-Hayes and the fire chief. Cummings' also disappointed many among his own ranks with his reassignment of dozens of firefighter. That plan could be temporary, however, depending on how effectively the fire department believes it to be working.

"My one word, if I were to describe this [Cummings' proposal] in one word, is disappointment," said Commissioner Alan J. Skobin.

Though Cummings has stated that both of his plans are backed by sound logic and plenty of figures, the commission found little evidence of that in their review. They say that until he is able to come up with more definitive data, they will not be approving the fire chief's proposal.