Firefighter groups’ position paper on staffing changes

With the over­whelm­ing share of his agency’s 911 calls now re­quest­ing emer­gency med­ic­al care, LAFD Chief Bri­an Cum­mings is mov­ing for­ward with a con­tro­ver­sial plan to shift more fire­fight­ers from en­gines to am­bu­lances.

Cum­mings, who has been un­der pres­sure to im­prove re­sponse times, said the de­part­ment must re­con­fig­ure its de­ploy­ment prac­tices to handle cur­rent work­load de­mands. But the city fire­fight­er uni­on and the as­so­ci­ation rep­res­ent­ing chief of­ficers op­pose the change, say­ing it will put fire­fight­ers at risk.