Los Angeles, CA - Greater Alarm Structure Fire - 3/15/15

[SageVigiles 1,194]

Date: 3/12/15
Time: Approximately 2315 PST
Location: 742 S Ardmore Ave
District: Fire Station 29 (Koreatown)

Units: LA City Fire Department

Chief Officers: DC22, BC1, BC11, BC18, BC5, BC9

Engines/Pumpers: E11, E13, E211, E226, E227, E26, E261, E27, E29, E52, E6

Trucks: T11, T26, T27, T29, T61

USARs: UR27, UR88
Rescue Ambulances: RA26, RA27, RA52, RA829

EMS Captains: EM1, EM11

Emergency Air Unit: EA1

Arson Investigation: AR1

Rehab Tender 59

Description:

Working fire on the 2nd floor of a 2-story house. 1 occupant rescued by LAFD, being evaluated by RA units. Fire now in the attic space.

Fire knocked down, Command releasing some companies.

Edited March 13, 2015 by SageVigiles

[Newburgher 241]

Must have been some house!

[PHIL78 129]

I was thinking the same thing. Some response. Only thing missing was an air drop.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

If I am not mistaken, LAFD's "Task Forces" consist of a traditionally staffed Engine, a minimally staffed Pumper (for water supply), and a Truck responding all as one unit. So the number of "Engines" is likely skewed because some of those only have a Driver. But maybe Seth or one of the more frequent LA buffs can explain better than I can.

[Bnechis 3,961]

If I am not mistaken, LAFD's "Task Forces" consist of a traditionally staffed Engine, a minimally staffed Pumper (for water supply), and a Truck responding all as one unit. So the number of "Engines" is likely skewed because some of those only have a Driver. But maybe Seth or one of the more frequent LA buffs can explain better than I can.

Even so, 5 BC & a DC

5 trucks & 2 USARs

Something else was going on at this incident

[INIT915 1,119]

Even so, 5 BC & a DC

5 trucks & 2 USARs

Something else was going on at this incident

The Google street-view shows some very large apartment buildings adjacent to that address. Maybe some fear of exposure?

EDIT: Actually, on closer look from the street-view, 742 might actually be the apartment building. The last "small" structure looks like 740, making 742 a 5-6 story apartment building. That would certainly explain the response.

[SageVigiles 1,194]

They did have reports of multiple people trapped, which might explain it. Honestly I'm not familiar enough with their operations.

LAFD PIOs live tweeted the incident, they also have an email alerting system you can subscribe to if you are interested, we monitor it at work:

https://twitter.com/lafd

Edited March 13, 2015 by SageVigiles

[x635 4,066]

LAFD's terminology is vastly different then east coast lingo.

A Light Force gives you 6 firefighters, and a Task Force gives you 10.

A "Light Force" is a truck company (1 Officer, 1 Apparatus Engineer, 1 Firefighter/Tillerman, 2 Firefighters) plus an Engine (200-series numbers) staffed solely by 1 Apparatus Engineer. The primary role of the engine know as a "Pump" in this scenario is so that the truck can be self sufficient if they need to deploy a master stream, stretch a line, or need specialty equipment carried on that piece. Although the Engine generally never splits up from the truck and runs everywhere with the truck, it can be fully staffed on it's own as an independent engine company with recall or held-over duty personnel during large scale crisis-type emergencies.

A "Task Force" is the Light Force above, plus the Engine Company from the same station (1 Officer, 1 Apparatus Engineer, 2 Firefighters).

The firefighters in these stations are rotated through positions to maintain familiarity with each spot.

This gives an incident a cohesive team of firefighters and manpower under the command of the truck captain that are flexible with tools and skills on how they can be deployed at any type of incident.

Here's an awesome website post that goes into full detail about LAFD, as well as extensive explanation of how Light Forces/Task Forces work: http://forum.emergency-planet.com/topic/7398-a-guide-to-the-lafd-and-assisting-agencies/

[firebuff88 4]

While the rundown shows many companies on scene, there is more to it than that.

After looking at the numbers, it seems there were 3 Task Forces, 2 Light Force and the rest single engine companies.

Lately, it seems that more ambulances are dispatched when there is a working fire. Most of the time, 1 or 2 will be dispatched as part of the initial assignment. I seem to recall that a EMS captain will be dispatched as well if 2 or more ambulances are dispatched.

For the 2 USAR companies, only USAR 88 is manned with a crew of 2 (A/O and Captain I). USAR 27 is not manned but since they are closer, they station crew cross staffed it and brought it to the scene. From recent memory, it seems USAR 88 is being dispatched more often for the larger incidents.