Offering my assistance.

[Xplorer4x4]

A Light Force is a fully staffed and equipped truck, with a 1 man pumper that tags along.

by truck, you mean..ladder truck? Sorry if I sound stupid again, but i just find this stuff very interesting.

I remember those wildfires. I worked in telemarketing(well kind of) at the time and we called Cali exclusively after 9 our time. I constantly talked to people that said the fires were a)coming down the hill and would hand up on me because they had to keep the line open in case of evacuation, or b)they were miles and miles away but could see the smoke very well.

[billyfromhill]

Yup, a light force is a five man ladder truck plus the one man "2-car" (the engine). Add a fully staffed engine (four men) and you get a task force.

[MikesPhotos]

Just a quick note. Got to spend some time with the squadies at 89s today, and the disaster cache changes on the heavies is on hold until further word on the grant. Heavies and light squads will continue to carry extrication gear, including jaws and rams, and S89 at least, has a blower and chainsaw as well as other forceable entry tools

[Newfoundking]

Mike, I have a question... This may be hard to answer, but do you know all the units and their uses in the LAFD? If so I would love to know it

I don't mean numbers I mean like ALS Engine, used for fire fighting, with ALS medical gear, or whatever. Like the unit, then a description.. I have always wondered what it would be in LA

[MikesPhotos]

Mike, I have a question... This may be hard to answer, but do you know all the units and their uses in the LAFD? If so I would love to know it

I don't mean numbers I mean like ALS Engine, used for fire fighting, with ALS medical gear, or whatever. Like the unit, then a description.. I have always wondered what it would be in LA

I imagine there isnt much, except some random specialized equipment that I'm unaware of LA, and LA County especially, are pretty large places with a multitude of little differences from house to house and area to area. I wrote a guide to LA for MikeyPI and Hoppah at one point that detailed everything from the units, to the stations, to the uniforms and such from the federal level down to the local municipal units found in the greater metropolitan region. I think I might ressurect that, edit it for wide spread viewing and make a sort of FAQ out of it. Maybe start small and build it up again. But just off of memory, these are all of the units I can think of

Chiefs

EMS Captains

Engines

Trucks

Light Forces

Task Forces

Rescue Ambulances

Heavy Equipment

Crew buses

Heavy Rescue

Brush Patrols

Foam

Water Tenders

USAR

HAZMAT

Swift Water Rescue

Aiport Rescue Firefighting (ARFF)

Air Operations Bell and Augusta Helicopters and Sikorsky Contract helo

Horses

Boats and Divers

Command Posts

Rehab

Volunteer Support units

Bike Medics

Prevention

Recruitment

Admin Staff

Arson Inspectors

Brush Clearance Unit

Plug Buggies

SAR K9

and I know i'm forgetting others. County is even bigger with even more toys over a larger area!

[Newfoundking]

Task Forces

Bike Medics

Task forces, explain please, like what do they do?

And I thought bike medics weren't in LA, I would suggest clearing this up, before people like attack looking for bike medics

[MikesPhotos]

Task Forces

Bike Medics

Task forces, explain please, like what do they do?

And I thought bike medics weren't in LA, I would suggest clearing this up, before people like attack looking for bike medics

Both have been mentioned before on this board and search is your friend. But just for the lazy amongst you..

Task force = Light force with Engine attached for a total of 10 men. (fire station 1 in the game, ALS Engine + light force = taskforce)

Bike Medics = Bicycle medics used for special events only like the LA marathon, probably used about 5 to 10 times a year if that. Its an OT special assignment.

[Xplorer4x4]

I asked this before and my post seems to have been deleted, what else is new.

Anyways, I was wondering does LACoFD work strictly in area outside the city limits and cover all area out side city limits with in the County?

[MikesPhotos]

I asked this before and my post seems to have been deleted, what else is new.

Anyways, I was wondering does LACoFD work strictly in area outside the city limits and cover all area out side city limits with in the County?

LACoFD Station list with map

The County of Los Angeles is over 4,000 square miles, with LACoFD responsible for around 2300 square miles of that territory. Compare that to LAFD's jurisdiction (which includes the city of San Fernando) which is just 471 square miles and you can see how vast the County of Los Angeles is. Because of the diversity that makes up Los Angeles and Southern California, it isn't just so cut and dry as to say the County handles the area outside the city limits like it would in other areas. Instead, the Consolidated Fire Protection District of Los Angeles County, which is LACoFD's *actual* name, covers all of the State Responsibility Area (SRA) land, the unincorporated parts of the county, and contracts with 60 local cities and communities to provide Fire, EMS, Air and Wildland services. And not just in LA County either!! LACoFD has recently been contracted to provide full services to the Orange County city of La Habra, much to the dismay of some OC board of supervisors. Because they are a Fire protection district and not a county fire dept, they are able to provide services beyond typical borders.

As you can see from the map above, LA City is not a traditional city with traditional borders. Throughout its history it has incorporated into the city various smaller areas, communities and full fledged cities, such as San Pedro, Hollywood, and Harbor city. Because of this, within LA Cities borders and all around it, are various other cities and communities. Many of those non-LA City communites and cities have decided to contract with the County due to the high level of services offered at a great reduction of cost compared to other options. This means that pockets like West hollywood are County, yet Hollywood is City. Universal Studios, Marina Del Rey, Chatsworth Lake Manor and other places are County jurisdiction but are surrounded by LA City.

Here is the latest list of the Cities served:

Agoura Hills, Artesia, Avalon, Azusa, Baldwin Park, Bell, Bell Gardens, Bellflower, Bradbury, Calabasas, Carson, Cerritos, Claremont, Commerce, Covina, Cudahy, Diamond Bar, Duarte, El Monte , Gardena, Glendora, Hawaiian Gardens, Hawthorne, Hidden Hills, Huntington Park, Industry, Inglewood , Irwindale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Habra, La Mirada, La Puente, Lakewood, Lancaster, Lawndale, Lomita, Lynwood, Malibu, Maywood, Norwalk , Palmdale, Palos Verdes Estates, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Pomona , Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rosemead, San Dimas, Santa Clarita , Signal Hill, South El Monte, South Gate, Temple City, Walnut, West Hollywood, Westlake Village, Whittier

In addition to all of those, we also have the unincorporated areas of:

Acton, Agoura, Agua Dulce, Alondra Park, Altadena, Antelope Acres, Athens, Avocado Heights, Baldwin Hills, Bassett, Big Mountain Ridge, Big Pines, Big Rock, Bouquet Canyon, Castaic, Castaic Junction, Charter Oak, Chatsworth Lake Manor, Citrus, Cornell, Del Aire, Del Sur, Del Valle, Desert View Highlands, East Compton, East La Mirada, East Los Angeles, East Pasadena, East San Gabriel, Florence-Graham, Gorman, Green Valley, Hacienda Heights, Juniper Hills, Kinneloa Mesa, La Crescenta-Montrose, Ladera Heights, Lake Hughes, Lake Los Angeles, Lennox, Leona Valley, Littlerock, Llano, Marina del Rey, Mayflower Village, North El Monte, Pearblossom, Quartz Hill, Rancho Dominguez, Rowland Heights, South San Gabriel, South San Jose Hills, South Whittier, Stevenson Ranch, Topanga, Universal City, Val Verde, Valinda, Valyermo, View Park-Windsor Hills, Vincent, Walnut Park, West Athens, West Carson, West Compton, West Puente Valley, West Whittier-Los Nietos, Westmont, Willowbrook

Lots of areas, like Compton and Pasadena have their own fire departments, yet also have small areas which are served by LACoFD. The City of San Fernando is another special case with both LA City serving it and LACoFD FS 74.

In other words, you just can't pigeon hole county responses in any fashion. LACoFD responds into the city mutual aid in areas such as Chatsworth, Hollywood, Marina Del Rey, Venice, and many others. They also respond into the city, along with the ANF, for all Wildland incidents since we have the hand crews and additional air assets that the city doesn't. And by mutual aid, I don't mean as an additional request, but as part of the first alarm assignment. FS8 in west hollywood responds into beverly hills and hollywood (LA City) on most structure fires, and in many areas, the freeway responses will get both a County and a City response so that both directions of the freeway are covered.

Think of it like a quilt with different patches, all throughout are city, county, and other fire depts and after many years of lessons learned, trial and error, and proper planning, the citizens get the best service possible even if a weird looking vehicle shows up and the guys have patches that they might not have expected. Heck, a typical fire call in County 75s area gets a full alarm response from the County, City, and Ventura County Fire! 3 different agencies, 3 different patches, first come first serve. But in that area, they don't have "small" calls. When a fire breaks there, its either a large mansion or a canyon that'll burn for weeks straight to the ocean. The Sesnon, Topanga, and many others all started there and burnt straight to malibu. Thankfully, due to the efforts of the men at 75s, there have been thousands of other fires that were handled quickly and efficiently and never got a chance to make the news or get a name in the history books.

[Xplorer4x4]

^wow, I had no idea it was so complicated, well perhaps I should say diverse? I assumed the answer to my question was yes. Glad I asked and thank you for your detailed response.

[C.F.D]

Probably fake, but just making sure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc3EhGVk8yw

This video, Operation Repo, you can see that theres an LAPD cruiser with a Whelen Liberty Bar...So, fake or real?

[MikesPhotos]

Probably fake, but just making sure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc3EhGVk8yw

This video, Operation Repo, you can see that theres an LAPD cruiser with a Whelen Liberty Bar...So, fake or real?

Fake

[Grim_Wizard]

Yeah most of the stuff they do is fake and scripted, and you can tell.

One of the episodes they had a bunch of armed guys and they were shooting the repo guys, and some how, they didn 't shoot the camera crew who had no car to go into.

[Ami89E1234]

does LAPD use LRADs? (LRADs are devices that emit high-pitched noises for crowd control, etc. they can even drop you to the ground if its at 150 dBs. ships also use the commercial ones for pirate defense. the military ones are more fatal though)

[MikesPhotos]

does LAPD use LRADs? (LRADs are devices that emit high-pitched noises for crowd control, etc. they can even drop you to the ground if its at 150 dBs. ships also use the commercial ones for pirate defense. the military ones are more fatal though)

No.

On an unrelated note, LAPD still has not been given permission to acquire the old LAFD 412 that was retired recently. Since the big blue medium lift huey was taken out of service, LAPD SWAT has had no air support component and has relied on LASD Air 5 and their SEB team for any callup requiring it.

Also LA County Coroners has had a job function change! This will make all of you blinkey light fans happy! The medical investigators are full fledged Peace Officers and their cars and the AV (antelope valley) special truck are now equipped with red lights and sirens. No more single amber light. Transport vans will remain amber.

Back to swat, LAPD's SWAT rescue 4 lenco Bearcat is now outfitted as bassically a paramedic ambulance with downed officer/civilian retrieval its primary mission

LA City fire's new agusta's are having some major teething pains. They were purchased WITHOUT a/c in the cabin, making their use as an airsquad tricky during this time of the year, the water tanks are only able to hold about 400gallons due to power issues, compared to the 1k of the other helos, and the air intakes do not have filters and they are unable to land on unimproved (dirt/field) surfaces like parks and school ball fields that make up a majority of the air ambulance and helispot areas. When the intakes are finally added, it should affect performance as well, which may make it unable to carry even the 400gallons. Talk about a real boondoggle. There is a lot of head scratching but no plans in place yet as to the future.

FBI has a new Jet ranger patrolling the skies, all tricked out with red and blue flashing lights on the skids and everything. It's real slick looking and def. cost a pretty penny. DEA's been having issues with their air fleet with a majority of them ending up in the bone yard due to maintenance issues. They're flying a real real old MD500 now.

LAPD's A-stars are now flying out of Van Nuys Airport as they are redoing the roof at Piper Tech. They did get approval for 4 more a-stars that will be painted in the black and white scheme. Current aircraft will remain in the blue an silver, so there will be a mix of the old white and blue, majority in blue and silver, and a handfull in black and white.

As far as the new vests go, still no word on LASD getting them. LAPD and CHP are both going along the lines of: Do not wear unless EXTENDED (over 1 hr to 2 hrs) traffic control duty. They have all voiced complaints that the gear is unaccessible, and if a situation goes bad, they're a real bright visible target. So far the only use i've seen them get was the staples center/laker parade. Not even the MJ detail wore them.

On a budget note, CALFIRE will be issuing IOUs not redeemable until October. As I understand it, the biggest hit will be Overhead personnel on fires, but furloughs and layoffs have begun for full time and seasonals.

LAPD and CHP are still committed to the Ford CV at this time, the dodge charger is just not cutting it as a work horse and the reviews have been mostly against purchasing chargers for anything but admin duty.

Coroners are pushing to get Expeditions or some sort of SUV to replace their crown vics.

DEA was rolling around in ford tauri taurses tauranosaurs rex...anyway, thats what they've been given out here for the most part.

Downey PD has a new mobile command SUV, LA city lifeguards are broke and having major funding problems, LACoFD is opening a handfull of new stations in the desert areas, and forming a new battalion too to split the load, and thats about all that comes to mind.

Mike

[Newfoundking]

Wow, it seems that no one can hide form financial troubles...

And as for traffic vests, I think the best option wold be to get lights for the cruisers designated for traffic control, that make the car more visible, whether it be just turning on the regular lights, or having brighter ones just for that purpose, then you don't need to make the officer a giant yellow/orange target

[MikesPhotos]

Wow, it seems that no one can hide form financial troubles...

And as for traffic vests, I think the best option wold be to get lights for the cruisers designated for traffic control, that make the car more visible, whether it be just turning on the regular lights, or having brighter ones just for that purpose, then you don't need to make the officer a giant yellow/orange target

I don't mean to be harsh or rude, but this is why people who actually are IN the business have no respect for whackers and the blinky light brigade. Time and time again, studies have shown that more lights are neither better nor more effective, and in many cases cause more accidents then they prevent. When you have vehicles striking GIANT bright red ladder trucks lit up like xmas trees with flares all around, and the fact that LAFD has already lost a few of its new ambulances in TC's with the new, supposedly much better, LED light packages, you soon start to realize why the general rule of thumb in all EVOC courses is LESS is MORE!

Lights, and especially those freaking insane setups cause disorientation, fixation, and confusion amongst many drivers. At night, with the combination of multiple vehicles, the spatial and processing abilities becomes greatly reduced with the mixtures of light and shadow areas and causes many drivers to be unable to define which lanes are actually blocked and which areas are safer. Add into that equation the elements of speed, tiredness, and general stupidity of a populace at large and it becomes a giant mess.

It's because of these things that the CHP went with the vision lightbars that have the options to just have 2 rotators oscillate (sweep) back and forth to the rear with the arrow bar. LAPD will usually just leave the steady burns on and either arrowbar set to flash or direction. It gives people something to focus on that clearly states be careful!

Remember, response lighting in which you are actively trying to reach out and say HEY, you!!! Move over or STOP please.... is very very different from onscene/warning lighting which is designed to just say Please slow down and be careful. This is why we have the new zebra Hi-Viz striping on the rear of Fire and EMS vehicles. It's not a response issue, but a safety while on scene issue, or else you'd have the whole vehicle painted that way.

Another thing to remember is that the vehicles and the people are not always in the same place on an incident. Even with something like a pop up sign board or the riseup bars you see in new york, it shows an incident is occuring but the people walking around all over are not visibile wearing dark blue/black/navy uniforms! CHP tan is much easier to see at night then LAPD navy, and some of the ambulance companies are darn near black color as well. With 5 cars stretched out along a road or a freeway, you have people spread out all over the place. The investigating officers especially due to their need to gather evidence and judge point of impact, speed, and all of the factors involved.

Let me be real clear, I'm all for Hi Viz, but I just hate the vests. The vest were designed for highway workers who pick up stuff along the side of the road and engineers who build the roads. The PROPER and PRUDENT solution would have been to work with the leading councils and unions to develop a solution that meets law enforcement and fire needs. Perhaps build something into the PD uniform such as hidden panels that they can reach back and instantly display along their back, chest, and legs. And just increase the visibility of the standard turnout and brush gear to bring it up to whatever level they want without the need for an additional piece of gear that blocks access to the pockets and radios.

Mike

[C.F.D]

Is it true that CHP tested Lambos to see if they are reliable for CHP patrols?

[MikesPhotos]

Is it true that CHP tested Lambos to see if they are reliable for CHP patrols?

I had never heard of such a thing, and we usually get the test vehicles out at Clark Training center like we have with the Volvo S-70s and Chargers. I asked a few CHiPies out of West Valley, Sacramento, Riverside, Westminster, and Santa Clarita areas and no one had ever heard of the Lambo being tested. That with most of them being on the job since the 80's and 90's and a few of them involved in the testing/purchasing process. I can say with great certainty that it was probably just some kids fantasy after playing Need For Speed and wishing ya know? Now that's not to say an office somewhere doesn't have one for PR purposes, much like the LAPD hummer, the CHP boxter, and numerous other seized vehicles that become promotional equipment at events, but none of those are certified for operational use.

[C.F.D]

Lol, i figured...i was chatting with a friend of mine, and he said that back in the days, CHP tested Lambos, to see if they're reliable but i said thats BS because CHP wouldn't do that...or use exotic cars for patrols....

One more Question, i heard that CHP used to test Impalas, but heard failed due to poor wheels handling....but again, are they using the newer impalas now?

[MikesPhotos]

Lol, i figured...i was chatting with a friend of mine, and he said that back in the days, CHP tested Lambos, to see if they're reliable but i said thats BS because CHP wouldn't do that...or use exotic cars for patrols....

One more Question, i heard that CHP used to test Impalas, but heard failed due to poor wheels handling....but again, are they using the newer impalas now?

They did test the impalas back around 2002-2004. Officers hated it, and when the newer version came out, officers said NO again. I haven't seen any of them still in existence.

Pines Fire - San Diego, 2002

Canyon Fire - Soboba Indian Res - 2003

[C.F.D]

Cheers, Mike!

[jsutton]

I'm a Chevy guy and hate fords but to tell you the truth, Ford Crown Vics should stay as patrol cars. Those cars have good body style, handling is good even at high speeds etc. I like the Chevy Caprices as well from '92/'93 years also.

[Texas_DPS]

Mike, does the LAPD have small substations?

- Jon

[MikesPhotos]

Mike, does the LAPD have small substations?

- Jon

There are small "Stop in/walk in" stations throughout the city that allow citizens to file non-emergency crime reports, speak to an officer, and get information on neighborhood watch and events. Usually there is just a citizen volunteer worker or two inside to help with the filling out of paperwork and answer questions. They are run by the division which is why some areas have them and others don't, but for the most part, they're becoming less prevalent due to cost and other budgetary needs.

I know other places use their substations as small forewarding bases where you find 1 or 2 cars and officers assigned to it and such, but LAPD's are mostly just small walk in kiosk type places donated by community groups or stripmalls where people can pick up forms and papers with civilian volunteer workers inside.