LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT 1999
The Los Angeles County Fire Department provides structural fire protection and rescue services to all unincorporated lands within Los Angeles County, and to 54 cities within Los Angeles County. (There are a total of 88 incorporated cities within Los Angeles County). 137 of its 141 fire stations are staffed by fulltime firefighters and/or fulltime firefighter / paramedics. Paid on call firefighters staff Station 157 in Green Valley, Station 140 in Leona Valley, ?Sta 155 on Catalina, and Sta 112 in Lancaster. (At a minimum, each fire station has at least 1 pumper.)
The Los Angeles County FD also protects all wildlands in unincorporated areas outside of the Angeles National Forest with funds provided by the State of California. (State law says that these lands are state-responsibilty lands, therefore the State of California pays for the wildland fire protection provided to these areas). All wildland fire protection within the Angeles National Forest is provided by the US Forest Service.
Typical Response Levels
- Medical Call or Motor Vehicle Accident - 1 engine + 1 squad + 1 private ambulance
- Building Fire - 3 engines + 1 ladder + 1 squad + 1 batallion chief
- Brush Fire - 5 engines + 1 Batallion Chief + 3 hand crews + 2 helos (If in the Pacoima area - LA County + LA City + ANF all send a full brush assignment - total of 15E + 5 helos + ?6 crews + ?2 dozers - 1982 info).
Equipment -
93 engines (pumpers) staffed with 3 people per shift - 52 engines staffed with 4 people per shift - 9 engines staffed by paid on call firefighters - 47 unstaffed reserve engines - 26 aerial ladder / turntable ladder trucks - 55 paramedic squads (small utility trucks) staffed by 2 firefighter/paramedics per shift - 14 unstaffed reserve squads - 34 brush patrols staffed by 1 person when needed - 7 medium helos - 1 small helo - 7 water tenders - 1 fireboat at Marina del Ray - 3 foam rigs - 6 dozers - other misc units - 11 camps with 20 peron hand crews for wildland firefighting - fulltime firefighters work 24 hours on duty at a fire station followed by 48 hours off duty away from the fire station.
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Division Lineup - 9 Divisions - 19 Batts
Div 1 - Batt 7 + 14 + 18
Div 2 - Batt 2 + 16
Div 3 - Batt 4 + 6
Div 4 - Batt 8 + ?6 (?9)
Div 5 - Batt 12 + 10
Div 6 - Batt 3 + 13
Div 7 - Batt 1 + 5
Div 8 - Batt 15 + 19
Div 9 - Batt 11 + 17
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Lifeguard Division - merged into the County FD in ?1997 - 37Mhz and new 159Mhz radios - nine 32 foot boats (2 are full ALS and 2 are defib equipped) - 6 inflatable boats - 4 ALS squads - 4 EMT-D squads - 34 beach patrol trucks. Lifeguard HQ is a secondary PSAP and is fully equipped to receive 911 calls that are transferred from other agencies.
1999 - New and Improved Radio System
Black Jack Mtn on Catalina Island - ERP15 (low power repeaters) - 161.475R 161.505R 161.52R - inputs at 159.60 + 159.105 + ?
Malibu - 161.37
Santa Monica - 159.525
Hermosa Beach - 159.63
Venice - 156.525
Old Radio Freqs - 37.20 all beaches - 37.08 - 37.36 - 37.06 - 37.12M - 37.16M - 37.30M (+ old Sheriffs freqs at 39Mhz)
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Fire Radio System
Voice Radio System - 470Mhz - first implemented in ?1978 as a "portable radio only" system - in 1982, all dispatching was still being done on 154.40, 154.34, and 154.43. ?Most fireground comms were being done on UHF simplex channels on the repeater outputs.
Blue 1 + 2 + 3 (South West) - transmit sites at Oat Mtn Nike @ Chatsworth + Castro Peak @ Malibu + Black Jack Mtn @ Catalina Island + Rolling Hills + Monte Vista @ Downey
Blue 5 + 6 + 7 (South East) - Mt Dissapointment north of ?Pasadena in ANF + Rio Hondo near Downey + Johnstone Peak above ?Covina
Blue 11 + 12 (North) - Bald Mtn near Gorman + Whittaker Middle Peak near Lake Castaic + Oat Nike Site at Chatsworth + Hauser Peak near Palmdale + Lower Blue Ridge near Wrightwood
Blue 4 + 8 - all sites
Blue 9 + 10 - no repeaters
I strongly suspect that this has been changed alot since Blue 1 and 3 are dispatch channels - this would leave only 1 firescene channel for the SW area - anybody know if 154.43 or 154.34 or 153.83 are still used for firescene ops? - maybe Blue 4 and 8 are used presently for fireground channels since the Chiefs all have had cellular phones since 1992.
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from socalfire@egroups.com 01Sept00 - LA County Fire is implementing a new channel and frequencies radio plan. Here are the last changes to the Tac assignments Starting September 5, Battalion 3 and Battalion 15 will switch from TAC17 to TAC22 (159.090) for their tactical fireground communications. Effective August 22, 2000, Battalions 1, 4, 7, 8, 16, 17, and 19 have switched from State TAC 3 [154.265] to TAC 21 (154.070) for their tactical fireground communications.
[Note by PS - That info came from the socalfire list. 154.07 used to be the Pomona FD freq before they merged into the County FD. 159.09 probably used to be a police freq. As I always suspected, LA County has extensive radio systems both on VHF and UHF. Gardena FD and Inglewood FD (?154.175) are reportedly merging into the Los Angeles County FD today. I wonder if 154.175 will become another LA County FD tac freq.]
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[Note to editor - I need to compare battallions to areas from co website - then I need to compare battalions to TROs to see if they match. (7/5/99 - see recent post on socalscan - see co website)] I need to compare tac freqs at VHF to see if they match TROs or Divisions (not that it makes a major difference) - 02Sept00
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UHF Radio Channels
Blue 1 - South LA Basin Terminal Radio Operator (TRO) - 470.5625R
Blue 2 - Tac - 470.4375R
Blue 3 - LA Basin TRO - 470.6125R
Blue 4 - Countywide - 470.5125R
Blue 5 - Tac - 470.6625R
Blue 6 - San Gabriel Valley TRO - 470.4125R
Blue 7 - Tac - 470.4625R
Blue 8 - Countywide Dispatch - 470.5375R
Blue 9 - North County Tac - 470.6375 (+ S Bay PD)
Blue 10 - North County Tac - 470.3625R (+?Glendale LG)
Blue 11 - ?Malibu area - 470.5875R
Blue 12 - North County TRO - 470.4875R (?avail as S Co FG)
(this info is based on 1996 edition of S Calif Police Call)
Helos - 118.95 - 118.925
154.40 air and camp crews - was Antelope Dispatch
154.34 - was San Gabriel Valley Dispatch
154.43 - was LA Basin dispatch
154.295 - was LA Basin response
153.83 - was fireground
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Breakdown by Freqs
470.3625 - Blue 10 - N Co Tac + ?Glendale ?LG
(470.3875 - SOUTH BAY PD)
470.4125 - Blue 6 - San Gabriel TRO
470.4375 - Blue 2 - Tac
470.4625 - Blue 7 - Tac
470.4875 - Blue 12 - N TRO
470.5125 - Blue 4 - Countywide Admin
470.5375 - Blue 8 - Countywide Dispatch
470.5625 - Blue 1 - South LA Basin TRO
470.5875 - Blue 11 - ?N or ?Malibu
470.6125 - Blue 3 - LA Basin TRO
470.6375 - Blue 9 - N Co Tac + S Bay PD
470.6625 - Blue 5 - Tac
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Data Radio System - 482Mhz
Ch 1 - Castro Pk + Lower Blue Ridge
Ch 2 - Whittaker Middle Peak + Johnstone Pk
Ch 3 - Bald Mtn + Mt Dissapointment
Ch 4 - Hauser Peak + Rolling Hills
Ch 5 - Oat Nike + Black Jack mtn
Ch 6 - ?new - ?Monte Vista or ?Rio Hondo
All Radio Info from 1992 La Co FD Comm System Guidebook
The data radio system connects the computers installed in the vehicles to the computers in the dispatch office. Fire dispatch info and ?street location info is available via the mobile computers.
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Websites -
�Los Angeles Co FD Official Website�
�Pablo Valadez's Website with lots of helo photos�
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per 6/25/99 SoCalScan - Air 5 runs medevac calls
1999 - possibly each active rig has 1 UHF mobile radio and 1 UHF portable radio - plus some VHF portable radios. [Jan 1999 - each position was equipped with a Kenwood tactical radio with speaker mike - per http://members.aol.com/layaline]
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Historical Dispatch Info
In the ?1950s, dispatch centers were located in Newhall, Malibu, ?Lancaster, East Los Angeles, and in ?Azusa (the eastern valley). In the ?early 1970s, the Newhall, Malibu, and ?Lancaster dispatch centers were merged into one location in ?Palmdale that was known as "Antelope". Around 1992, the 3 remaining dispatch offices (Antelope, LA, and Valley) were merged into 1 dispatch center located at HQ in East Los Angeles.
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Oct 1999 - Couple of Handcrew Prisoners Beat Feet
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Super Scoopers
News Item - 26 January 2000 - at noon today, the 2 Super Scoopers will leave Van Nuys Airport and return to Canada - they have been held 30 days extra this year - they were dispatched ?72 times and fought 33 fires
July 2000 newspaper article about Super Scoopers
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Typed by Peter Szerlag - 7/4/99 - 10/5/99 more info added about radio systems, dispatch centers, and fleeing handcrew members - 02Sept00 - new Tac freqs - layaline site
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