MikesPhotos

Yep, here is a pic of LAFD's take on the new standard. Photo taken by John Gregory of the great site LAFirePhotos. And here is LACoFD's take on the NFPA standard for engines. Slowly but surely every apparatus will have the stripes, of course with the massive amounts of complaints coming in about driver fixation on the chevrons, and other issues with drunk drivers being attracted to them like beacons, who knows how long they'll remain. Mike

The chevrons on the back of ambulances and fire apparatus are something that has been a topic of discussion in many forums. Here in the United States, we have a non-governmental body called the National Fire Protection Association that sets standards for Fire Fighting and Fire Protection throughout the country. While these are not laws, the standards are practically adopted verbatim by all agencies. The new NFPA 1901 standard that takes affect this year specifies that 50% of the rear of vehicles are to have a chevron in an alternating color reverse V pattern. The standard includes a list of allowed colors and other technical details for each type of apparatus and is easily found via google. LAFD has decided to take the proactive step of covering the entire rear of their ambulances with the chevrons for safety, but you can be pretty sure that chevrons will soon be turning up everywhere in the US on fire apparatus. Mike

The sign on the door was due to the picture being taken at the Van Nuys Air Fest. They were promoting both the LAFD Recruitment efforts and the Historical Museum.

Communications on large scale incidents is one of the largest priorities and headeaches faced by the fire service throughout the nation. Here in Los Angeles, it is compounded due to the fact that we have so many agencies that work so closely together and yet are unable to speak directly to each other. LACoFD is on a 470mhz UHF-T system, LAFD is on an 800mhz conventional system, USFS is on VHF High, and many others are on the new ICIS trunked system like Burbank and Culver City. Slowly but surely, all of th departments are working diligently together to link up their communications for the future, but that takes time, money and infrastructure that just doesn't exist quite yet. Because of that, large departments like the LAFD have purchased special vehicles that can respond to an incident and supplement the communication needs of that incident. By having a radio that covers every band, Computer terminals, patch capabilities and other tools, it gives the Incident Commander the ability to effectively communicate with everyone on the incident. LAFD has both the Communications Interoperability Units and volunteer HAM based Auxillary Communication Services units. You can find pics of both on my site at: CIU ACS Mike

You're quite welcome. Hopefully those will help with your next update. I remembered seeing this pic on flickr before and I finally tracked it down. It's of an LAFD Pierce flowing the deck gun on olympic blvd. Note: NOT one of my pics.

Ask and you shall receive! Just got done editing the pictures from yesterday and took a bunch just for you Hoppah. Check out this link and be sure to click on the TC with injuries albumlink as well to see close ups of the Deck gun. FS125 be drilling on it sometime this month so i'll be getting some shots of that as soon as it happens. There is also a forcecible entry and truck work drill coming up in Station 16s area that I have scheduled. Normally E125 mounts a Brush Nozzle on it due to the area, but you can mount many different kinds that affect the Gallons Per Minute that comes out of it. The largest one we have is around 600gpm which still allows us to pull 2 lines off the rig since we can pump about 1000gpm without a problem. Also I found out that they changed the County's protocols and we no longer remove the deck gun from the engines for use as a ground monitor. There was a problem or something somewhere, no one really knew why, but we've been directed that they're to remain attached to the engine. For ground monitors, we can take the nozzle off the Quints and Trucks and mount it on a stand for that kind of work which makes sense and is much easier actually. Also check out this link to see pics of LACoFD's Q125 with the cab tilted foreward. Here are also two shots that I did NOT take of LAFD apparatus with its cab tilted: Engine and Truck 48 E48 and E64 Mike P.S ... One thing I forgot to mention, I also took some shots of the investigating CHP officer so you could see the uniform as well as a shot of the Polar Bear (White slicktop crown vic CHP commercial enforcement vehicle) that had a new light set up that I have not come across before. Rear view mirror had dual led steady burn red and fast flashing blue with non alternating flashing leds at angles on the front border. To the rear it had an arrowbar with red and blue end lights instead of the general all amber with blue and red lights mounted above it.

That is indeed the deck gun! Mounted midship above the pump on every Fire Engine in the LA City and County fleet, they provide a powerful stream of water for use in defensive firefighting operations. Commonly used to extinguish trash fires safely, they can also be dismounted and placed on the ground around a building as a manned or unmanned "monitor." You can see great video of a deck gun competition back east For an arcticle on Deck Gun drills that may provide you with some more insight, and perhaps give some ideas to the Firefighters on this page, check out this one from Fire Engineering Magazine. As for better pics of it, my next shift is tommorow and I'll try and grab some close up shots of it for you. You can bassically see it on every engine pic I have though, but here is a shot from a friend of mine on his own website of the deck gun in action on a Burbank FD rig. I'll let you know when the additional pics are added. Mike

Hi Hoppah, boy is that a relic of history! That style helmet even predates my fire service career, which I must admit, gets longer every year! Todays brave men and women of both the Los Angeles City and County Fire departments, like most others in California, utilize the Phenix Helmet for their personal protective equipment. While similar to the older style, they have a more pronounced dome to give it what many back east call "The Darth Vader" shape. Their website is here and you can see some other pics in action on my site. One thing to note are helmet and shield colors White Helmet: Chief Officer. Red/Orange helmet with Black Shield: Engine or EMS captain Red/Orange helmet with Red Shield: Task Force Captain II on the Truck Yellow helmet with black shield: Firefighter Yellow Helmet with Red shield: Firefighter on the Truck as part of a Light force. Also, I came across this pic of the LAFD Rehab Tender and Engine 60 on their official flickr site, Another top down engine shot couldnt hurt! LAFD Rehab/Air Tender and Engine 60 Mike

Hi everyone, I am indeed back! I had a great vacation at disneyland and brought in the new year right! Honestly, not to much. The malibu fire pics I posted slammed my server big time though due to the news attention they recieved. I average about 4 to 6k hits a day, but that was hitting about 15! 72% through search engines, 11% direct. Spaloo is correct once again. While they are all sworn police officers, POST level I, they mostly provide security details and park patrols. In the game, they would be the ones who would respond to fights and such at the Hospital on the map. The California Office of Emergency Services is a separate agency that reports directly to the governor of california. It's primary responsibilities involve coordination of local, state and federal agencies to best affect the State's Emergency Plan. The provide overhead, funding, and equipment amongst other services to all large incidents and disasters in this state. What you are probably referring to and what Spaloo commented on are the yellow OES Engines and Water Tenders. The OES has a program in which various agencies throughout the state, both Career and Volunteer recieve Engines and Water Tenders under specific rules and guidelines. The way the program works is that the department gets the apparatus under the agreement that it will NOT be used as a front line apparatus, but can be used for Reserve, temp staffing, and to cover a station. All staffing is done by the local government agency (the fire dept that gets the apparatus) and all repair and maintenance over $100 is paid for by the state. When a major emergency occurs, the OES will notify the local agency to staff the apparatus and form up into a local area strike team to head to the emergency. Most departments have no more then 1 or 2 OES apparatus, and so a local area strike team will normally have 5 engines from 5 different agencies under the command of a local Battalion Chief. This way the incident gets the necessary resources, but no one agency is left depleted and with empty stations. As for the Venerable and Esteemed Brian Humphrey.. No I do not know him personally. We have conversed via email and on message groups a few times but that is the extent. For those who do not know the name, Brian Humphrey is the amazing and truly gifted PIO/FIO of the Los Angeles City Fire Department. A Firefighter III/Specialist, his breadth of knowledge and his skill at his job is second to none. He has been such a gift to that department and to the fire service as a whole that those of us who live in this area owe him a large measure of gratitude. His name and that of Bill Peters of the California Dept of Forestry and Fire Protection are truly revered amongst those who even consider being a PIO/FIO. Hoppah answered this one correctly. All Engines do have a Deck gun, but the water tenders do not. Unfortunatly, the best laid plans of mice and men do often go awry! We got struck with a powerful winter rain storm here in the Los Angeles area that knocked out power to my area for quite a bit. On top of that, my backup host in the Midwest also went down due to snow! Hopefully everything is back up and running now, and I am home as well! Mike

Glad you like them Hoppah, the thumbnails don't really do them justice at all! As I Mentioned in the main mod thread, the HAZMAT squad is more then just for HAZMATs much the way the USAR rig doesn't just go to USAR calls! LAFD HAZMAT squads respond to all structure fires within a mile of their fire station, as well as to various other calls to perform various duties such as RIC (rapid intervention crew) or just as additional manpower. Ah yes, this is a question I hear quite often in fact! No the Los Angeles County Police Department is not the same, nor affiliated with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. In fact, they are two very distinct and separate agencies! It's official name is the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety and they were formed when the County merged the Park Police, Department of Health Services’s Police, and Internal Services Department’s Safety Police to form one agency. You can read more about them here. Mostly they provide security and law enforcement at county owned property such as hospitals, parks, and government buildings. The Los Angeles County Sheriffs department still handles routine law enforcement duties in unincorporated areas, as well as contract cities. They're also in charge of the county jails, court buildings, and other duties typical of a sheriffs department. As for the LAPD Ford Explorer, I've seen quite a few, but only for K9 Units that I can recollect. I do know they did have Jeeps down in the Venice beach area when I lived there in the mid 90s. Mike

Hmmm I don't know whether or not I'm reading this correct, but isn't that pretty much how the original game is? The main idea of my post regarding a change to the EMS in the game was to reflect the practices of the Emergency Medical System in the Los Angeles area. Your idea, while interesting, is the exact opposite. On a totally seperate note... Hoppah, as you may have seen in the Off Topic forum, I happened to jump a City call a few days ago and grab some shots that you might find interesting. It was a residential 2 sty apartment house fire during high winds which brought out all of the big boys to play. Division Chief 3 was in charge, and EMS 10, EMS 14 (the EMS truck that people commented on), the new USAR88 which is using a vehicle very similar to the Hazmat rigs now with the exception of a large metallic structure on its roof, and Hazmat Squad 87 amongst others. You can see the pics here. Some previews: 99 pics in all I also asked about the new EMS vehicle, and the general impression was that they can't wait to get the crown vic back as soon as possible. Mike

Definetly sounds interesting! Can't wait to see what the surprise is for sure! I couldn't help but shake my head and sigh at the same time regarding the troublemakers. California is one of the few states where "Mandatory Evacuations" are not mandatory! One of the most dangerous, and heart breaking parts of every SoCal Firestorm are the people who steadfastly refuse to evacuate the area and their homes and insist on protecting them with garden hoses and other ineffective tools. There is nothing we can do to stop it, we can neither arrest them nor force them to leave as long as they are on their own property or have the permission of the property owner. Unfortunatly this leads to some confrontations with emergency workers at times, and all too often the citizen realizes much to late that his efforts are futile and that he needs to evacuate. That shear audacity and at times, lunacy is the #1 cause of civilian deaths during the firestorm. You just can't outrun a fire. It is just that simple. Even with all of the tools at our disposal from Aircraft to Handcrews, and all of our training and practice, more often then not we're simply at the mercy of the weather and the terrain.

Hey everyone, I just got back from an Apt house fire in San Fernando Valley. This was an LAFD call, but since I was down the block I grabbed my camera and ID and headed over to grab some shots and to test some things. Here are a couple of prelim shots and i'll be uploading more to my website soon.

The term "Squad" has a rich history in the fire service as a "Catch All" term. With most apparatus having a very definitive definition and specific requirements that are laid out in the Incident Command System Field Operations Guide, the term Squad is used to describe any apparatus that doesn't fit so neatly into those parameters. In most areas this means that it is an apparatus that doesn't have a pump or an aerial ladder, but like most things in the US Fire Service, there are always exceptions to every rule! In the FDNY, their squads are just like you said. In 1998, the FDNY decided to change some of their Engine companies over to a specialized role. Purchasing specially built Seagrave Midship Rescue Pumpers that could function as a regular engine company on most calls, they were also equipped with special HAZMAT and Ladder/Rescue company tools! By staffing them with Men and women who had HAZMAT Tech qualificatons as well as Engine and Truck Company training, they created a specialized response unit that was a jack of all trades. Unfortunatly though, with every "all-in-one" solution, you have compromise. Because of the staffing and equipment carried, it was no longer a normal engine company therefore it got the catch all term "Squad." For Los Angeles County Fire, the squads are small pickup trucks that are staffed by 2 paramedics and carry ACLS medical equipment and a few Heavy Squads carry extrication tools as well. For Los Angeles City Fire, the squads are large HAZMAT apparatus that are staffed with 4 personell with specialized HAZMAT training, yet also respond to Structure fires within 1 mile of their station. Hope that helps. Mike

Hey Hoppah, As you may know we're having another wind event today here in Los Angeles. A lot of down power lines, snapped poles, and blowing embers making even the most minor fire into a major one. While on an incident, something struck me that I completely forgot about. In Los Angeles City, we have what is known as OPG tow. OPG stands for Official Police Garage, and these are the official private tow companies for the city of Los Angeles and handle all impound and accident calls. While they are private companies, they all follow the same paint scheme as you can find here at the Hollywood tow service White cab, black flat bed, with the OPG seal on the doors and tow company name on the side as you can see here it's the same model, same animation and everything that is in the current in-game tow vehicle, just different look. Also in regards to the Coroners vehicle, in Los Angeles County the coroners office uses vans like the one you have modeled with Amber colored lights, or specialty vehicles with red lights as you can see here: Pic 1 - Similar to the Fictional MCI vehicle you have in the game and pic 2 and Pic 3 (not mine) Mike

Good Eye Hunter42! Yes, the flag on the right shoulder should INDEED be backwards! Here is a quote from stars and stripes magazine that you can find via numerous sources such as snopes.com and others by googling. It's not just the army though, every service of the military follows the same regulations regarding the flag as well as Fire/EMS and Law Enforcement Agencies. You'll even find the Boy Scouts of America do as well!

While I normally spend my time in Battalions 1 and 5 (west hollywood and malibu/calabasas) I've had the pleasure of heading down to 41s and 16s on a few occasions. It's definetly an experience that everyone in the department should try at least once. Since MLKs ER closed, they found that staffing the ambulance, known as MA41 (mobile aid) ,was the best way of handling the situation since the station is right across the street from the old ER. The reason factored in the number of calls, type of calls, and the response time for private transports as opposed to being able to scoop and run on their own. They first considered just adding a staffed squad, but after weighing the pros and cons, and the special circumstances that the ER closure presented, it was found that this was the best model for the area. I'll try and get down there shortly and take a pic of it, but I have to admit, it wasnt anything impressive the last time I saw it. Just a Van style ambulance in a dark old red paint scheme, with Los Angeles County Fire Dept on it in stencilled lettering. You are quite welcome, if nothing else it gives you a bit of insight into things. And I agree with you, my recomendations were more in tune with Mod 2.0 or 4.0 vs anything recent. I'm looking forward to the new mission and updates though I must admit, I'm still having a great time with the way things currently are. If you have any questions or need any details, feel free to ask! Mike

Hi Hoppah, ALS stands for Advanced Life Support and in many parts of the United States, sometimes 1 or 2 of the firefighters on the Engine are trained to Paramedic level. Since most of the runs are medical in nature this allows for quicker ALS care and the ability to handle additional patients on scene. The only difference between an ALS and a BLS engine is that they carry additional medical equipment such as a drug box for the paramedics. And sorry Joe, no idea how to achieve what you want but maybe this will help hoppah and others to figure out a solution for you. Mike

You are correct. The Los Angeles City Fire Department did purchase a freightliner RA for testing and evaluation a few years back. For the longest time it was at 100 but I beleive it is now at 46's. As for Los Angeles County, while you are right in saying that LACoFD does use Paramedic Squads with private transports, they also have what are known as Mobile Aid units. Spread out throughout the county and rarely used on a permanent basis, these are a mishmash of Van and Box style ambulances that were acquired from various contract cities and have been brought into service more and more recently. 1 was staffed at the Canyon Fire in Malibu and 1 has also been fully staffed at Fire Station 41 due to the closure of Martin Luther King's Emergency Room. It is just one more testament to the flexibility you find in the Los Angeles area's Fire and EMS Service. You just might see an LACoFD ambulance on your next call!

The way I see it, there would be no change due to the fact that the EMS Captain would just be an extra EMS officer much the way the battalion chief is for the firefighter. The paramedic would still function as is, with the single and dual units, but would just be able to heal with the stretcher which would be an added ability. For those who enjoy the original gameplay, they would just use the RA's as they always have with 1 PM and 1 PM w/stretcher and just ignore the EMTs and the EMS Captain. The Los Angeles County Pre-Hospital Emergency Medical System DOES indeed have medical doctors! While they are not part of the typical daily response in the way that Paramedics and EMTs are, each large agency does employ a Medical Doctor who oversees the departments EMS system. His roles include issues certification, training, and developing standard operation procedures for the EMTs and Paramedics. In addition to that, during times of unusual emergency, they can also respond to an incident especially during mass casualty and natural disasters. By having him on scene, the paramedics can perform additional procedures and give additional medication that they would normally have to radio (cell phone nowadays) contact with a nurse or doctor for. Los Angeles also has what is known as a Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT), which is part of the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS). With doctors, nurses, and both paramedics and EMTs, they have been known to respond to large incidents as well. A trend started a few years back at the Pines Fire in San Diego was to respond the local or state DMAT to all wildfires and set them up in the ICP. I happened to be one of their first patients on that incident for a minor issue and I was greatly thankful to have them there! More common though is the use of Nurses for pre-hospital care and transport in the private sector. Many private ambulance companies such as AMR and PRN utilize Mobile Intensive Care Nurse (MICN) for use in transporting high risk patients from facility to facility and from home to facility. While their use in emergency medical response is minimal if at ever, for departments that do not have their own air ambulance, many rely on Mercy Air which has both Flight Nurses and Flight Surgeons as part of their crew. LACoFD also has some flight surgeons who are available as well I beleive, though I've actually never met one on an incident. Mike

That charger model looks great! Who knows, maybe I'll be seeing those on scene in the next few years. In regards to sirens, I happened to be playing the game today when I had an arson suspect call. After the two LASD units got on scene, I couldn't figure out why I was still hearing sirens until I looked out the window and saw two LASD cars go past Code 3. I couldn't help but laugh at just how perfect the game sounds compared to what was out my window. Great job all around!

I'm glad you like the pics and hopefully they are of some use. I've also been thinking about the Uniforms a bit lately and in addition to the Paramedics I'd like to note that Battalion Chiefs typically wear a brush or turnout jacket, white helmet, and black pants instead of full turnouts. You can see a great example of that here for LAFD. LAFD Chiefs, Captains and EMS Supervisors Pic(not mine) as well as for LACoFD If you look to the far left of the LAFD picture, you can see an EMS supervisor in the Red/Orange helmet and Navy pants. While I understand your reluctance to change the original gameplay to much, I had an idea about the EMS units that you might find favorable since it doesn't change the gameplay at all. The Los Angeles City Fire Department utilizes both EMT level and Paramedic Level Rescue Ambulances in the field as well as an EMS Supervisor. With having the newer all red and the older white over red style, it would be possible for your mod to reflect the EMS system realistically. Right now you have 1 Medic that staffs the supervisors vehicle and replaces the Doctor in the original game, and the 2 medics with a stretcher that cannot heal just stabilize which replaces the paramedics in the original game. The benefit of this is that it stays to the original gameplay, and uses only 2 units, the Medic with the stretcher and the Medic without. The other option would be to create 5 seperate units which I understand would be more work then it may be worth: EMS Captain --Similar to the BC he would wear a Red/Orange Captains helmet, Brush/Turnout jacket and Navy pants. By giving him the ability to heal as well as call for additional RA's and Air Ambulances, you'd bassically replace the Doctor with this unit while giving him the additional Supervisor capabilities he has in real life. He'd staff the EMS supervisor vehicle similar to the original Doctors car in the game. Paramedic -- This unit would mimic the current paramedic you have with the exception that the 2 unit w/stretcher could heal just like the current single Paramedic can. Typical uniform is really a mix of everything from Yellow Helmet to Baseball cap to No headwear, Turnout Jacket, Navy Work Shirt, Navy T-shirt, and Turnout Pants and Navy work pants. The benefit of adding the Heal capability to the stretcher unit is that the ambulance only needs the 1 unit to perform all of its functions, or it can drop the stretcher and assist two patients till another ambulance arrives on scene, for example, an 800 series for transport. EMT -- This unit would be similar to the Paramedic but have a different uniform such as Baseball Cap or no headgear, T-shirt, and Navy pants so you could easily tell the two apart. Also whether single unit or with a stretcher they would only stabilize a patient much the way the 2 Paramedic with stretcher can now. They'd mostly be for transportation as they are in real life which is usefull when you have a lot of patients and you want to keep your medics bouncing from one to another while still getting patients up and out like in your terrific race crash scenario. By having seperate ALS and BLS units you can use the All red Box ambulance for an ALS (2 Paramedics) Rescue Ambulance, and use the White over red as your 800 series BLS (2 emts) ambulance and just leave the Classic White over Red van with whatever staffing you'd like. It's just a thought and hopefully you will find some logic in it.

Speaking of ambulances, I spent some time at Kaiser this morning and managed to get these pictures for you Hoppah. They're of LAFD's Rescue Ambulance 107 which proudly serves the Chatsworth area. As you can see, many of LAFD's and LACoFD's apparatus are being painted with a more European like Hi-Viz paint scheme in the rear. They're still rare but I believe all new apparatus are going to be ordered with it. One other thing to note since you mentioned uniforms in your main thread, the LAFD Paramedics do not wear a light blue over dark blue uniform as you have them in the game. Typically you will find them wearing either the dark blue/navy button down Work Shirt, or the dark blue/navy T-shirt with dark blue/navy uniform pants or on occasion like as seen in this pic, Turnout pants. Mike

One of the marvelous things about the Fire Service is seeing how different areas use different means and methods to accomplish the same goal. The first department I ever joined had a motto that has stuck with me throughout my entire career because it seemed to sum everything up for me so perfectly. "Protecting Life, Environment, and Property." No matter where in the world you are, that rings true. As for the makeup of the LAFD, as of October of this year it is: • 129 Ambulances - 89 Paramedic and 40 BLS Ambulances • 101 Engine Companies – 35 Paramedic and 66 BLS • 49 Light Forces – 11 Paramedic and 38 BLS • 5 Fireboats – 1 Paramedic and 4 BLS As for the makeup of the LACoFD, they are actually a bit harder to come by since there has been a recent influx of new stations and changes. I beleive the current staffing levels are :  88 Paramedic Squads (including two Lifeguard units on Catalina Island)  Six Paramedic Engines  21 Assessment Engines  Two Assessment Truck/Light Forces Mike

I'll do my best! The Task Force/Light Force concept is all about flexibility of resources. The basic element, the Task Force consists of a single fully staffed 4 man Engine (ex. Engine 88), a 5 man Truck (Truck 88) and a single man Engine (Engine 288) that is refered to as the pumper or "Two Car". The goal is to get 10 men on scene quickly and efficiently with every tool in the shed so to speak. The Task Force (TF) can then be split up into the Single Engine Co. (E88) and the Light Force (LF) of T88 and E288. Wherever the Truck goes, so goes the 2 Car, even if its just to grab groceries at the store, or a medical aid, or traffic accident. This allows the LF to act as either a fully manned truck or an extra staffed engine with all of the tools of both. This also allows for the pumper to supply the truck a water source for its aerial master streams without having to tie up an engine company. Most Fire Stations have an Engine company there and some are full Task Force houses. There are a few Light Force only houses, such as Fire Station 102 that has just T102, E302 and the Paramedic Rescue Ambulance 102. Because of the area and size of the station, the Light Force there is truly a jack of all trades and is one of the busiest in the nation responding on every call in it's first in. Now when you mention a structure fire, you have to once again go back to the word Flexibility. Depending on the type of structure, the exposures (other buildings around the involved unit) and who gets there in what order the Light Force can be utilized in various ways. A Typical Single Story Single Family dwelling will have the first Engine go into Fire Attack with the 2nd in unit grabbing the Hydrant and supplying the 1st one. If the Light Force is 2nd in, it's not uncommon and many time preferable to use the Two Car Engine as a pumper and do the supply, thereby freeing up the next engine in. The Truck company will either go into Roof Ops or search and rescue, secure the utilities, or any of the other numerous tasks the great men and women truckies do. But depending on the area and the situation, it's not uncommon to get a Light Force and a Task Force dispatched to the same incident and have either light force be pressed into service as an engine company for fire attack. As i've mentioned elsewhere on this board, many of the Engines in the LAFD are either Paramedic or Paramedic Assessment Engines. This allows the nearest paramedic unit to be dispatched to calls warranting Advanced Life Support care. With a population as large as Los Angeles City, the Rescue Ambulances are taxed with transport, delays in off loading patients and routine medical aids. By supplementing the ambulances with Paramedic Engines, the load is distributed better and care is rendered quicker. Because of that, LA City and County have found that by using the Light Force you still have an Engine in the house most of the time even if the Light Force or Engine Co are running a call. Once again, it's all about Flexibility. You also ask about traffic accidents. The dispatch matrix for a traffic accident with possible injuries but no entrapment would call for either the nearest Engine OR Light Force to respond. Which ever one is closer responds to get men on scene quicker. If there is a need for extrication beyond what an Engine Co can do, they will either request an additional Light Force for a door pop for example, or upgrade to a Physical Rescue Assignment which involves a complex algorithm and matrix to determine what units are sent from an EMS supervisor, Battalion Chief, whether or not to send a USAR squad, or the Heavy Rescue Tow Vehicle. By Rescue Company, I believe you are referring to something similar to our USAR Squads. Bassically a large apparatus with Rescue, Shoring and Extrication equipment but no Aerial ladders, pump, water tank or hose. There are only a couple of these through out the city and they are staffed by 2 firefighters. Their use is never as a first choice, but say for example LF 88 is on a call and Engine 88 needs a door pop, well USAR88 can respond much quicker then the next nearest LF. I have seen Freeway assignements with just the USAR and the RA but that was due to the entire Task Force being on a different run and move up companies hadn't quite reached the area yet. I hope that gives you a little bit more insight into the Task Force/Light Force concept. I know that in addition to LA City and County, Bellvue Wash. also runs Light Forces and I'm sure a few others do throughout the US. The hard part is the additional staffing, maintenance, and space requirements needed. For many departments, a 5 man Quint fits better into their budget. The benefit of the Light Force over the quint is that it doesn't have the same compromises you hear from those who utilize them. Mike.