Life on the line: 911 breakdowns at LAFD

LAFD proposed budget, 2014-15

By Ben Welsh

In a bid to roll back cuts that fol­lowed the eco­nom­ic down­turn five years ago, the Los Angeles Fire De­part­ment is con­sid­er­ing a re­quest to boost its budget by nearly 10% next year, push­ing an­nu­al spend­ing to a high of more than $600 mil­lion.

The pro­posed in­creases, which would need to be ap­proved by the City Coun­cil and may­or, would go to­ward hir­ing 280 new fire­fight­ers with an over­hauled re­cruit­ment ef­fort and fund fur­ther im­prove­ments to the de­part­ment’s widely cri­ti­cized tech­no­logy, ac­cord­ing to a draft de­bated by the city Fire Com­mis­sion on Tues­day.

Sources: Los Angeles Fire Department

Credits: Ben Welsh