ICMA plan 'cause for concern'; Twenty is plenty

ICMA plan a ‘deep cause for concern’

To the Editor:

A recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology found that “firefighter crews of five or six — instead of three or four — are significantly faster in putting out fires and completing search and rescue operations when responding to fires in high-rise buildings,” and that “three-member crews took almost 12 minutes longer than crews of four … to complete all tasks.”

This summary was posted on an April 2013 blog by Thomas Wieczorek, the director in charge of a study by the International City/County Management Association’s Center for Public Safety Management that our City Council is using as the basis for its plan to reduce on-duty career firefighter crews from a minimum of five to three.

Interestingly, Wieczorek also noted that the NIST study concluded that smaller crews end up facing larger fires. I wonder if he factored into the ICMA report a recently approved plan to build two 15-story buildings on the Superblock.

Long Beach career firefighters now practice a form of firefighting that is modeled after the New York City Fire Department, called “aggressive interior attack.” That means the first arriving crew enters a burning, smoke-filled home without water, before any other crew arrives.

So, if you’re lying unconscious, firefighters will rush inside before the cavalry comes. However, if ICMA’s proposed cuts are implemented, the first-arriving crew, under most circumstances, will no longer be permitted inside a smoke-filled home until volunteers arrive. Why? Because U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration rules mandate a minimum of four firefighters at the scene: two by the door or window — ready to rescue the first responders if something goes wrong — before the other two can enter.