LAFD standards-of-cover report finds major staffing and coverage gaps; city urged to pursue short-, medium- and long-term fixes

Summary

A standards-of-cover analysis presented to the Los Angeles City Public Safety Committee found the Los Angeles Fire Department is significantly understaffed and cannot reach roughly half of city locations within the NFPA-recommended four minutes. The department and union leaders urged faster hiring, new ambulances and dozens of additional stations;

Battalion Chief Eric Roberts, with the Los Angeles Fire Department planning section, told the Los Angeles City Public Safety Committee that an International Association of Fire Fighters standards-of-cover analysis shows the department is “under resourced, understaffed, and underfunded for decades.” The report, prepared in partnership with labor, concluded the department can reach only about 49.2% of city locations within the four-minute threshold NFPA 1710 recommends for initial emergency medical response.

Why it matters: The committee heard that LAFD response performance has worsened in recent years even as call volume surged — from about 100,000 runs a year historically to roughly 514,000 in 2024 — and that the department’s ninetieth-percentile travel time stood at 7 minutes, 53 seconds in the study period, roughly double the NFPA recommendation.

The report quantified short-, medium- and long-term steps. Short-term items the department said can be implemented quickly include deploying additional two-person fast-response units and ambulances (the study recommended 32…

LAFD standards-of-cover report finds major staffing and coverage gaps; city urged to pursue short-, medium- and long-term fixes

Summary

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