LAFD standards-of-cover study finds response times double NFPA recommendation; department asks for staff, stations and short-term units

The Los Angeles City Public Safety Committee on Wednesday heard a standards-of-cover analysis showing the Los Angeles Fire Department often takes nearly eight minutes to reach incidents at the 90th percentile and can reach only about half of city locations within the four-minute standard recommended for many emergency medical and fire responses.

Battalion Chief Eric Roberts, presenting the report developed with the International Association of Fire Fighters and the department’s planning section, told the committee “the LAFD has been under resourced, understaffed, and underfunded for decades.” He said the study found the department can reach only 49.2% of locations within four minutes and that the LAFD’s 90th‑percentile travel time is “7 minutes and 53 seconds, twice what the NFPA recommends.”

The report, a joint labor-management effort, compared Los Angeles with national recommendations in NFPA 1710 and with other large cities and recommended a mix of short-, medium- and long-term measures to narrow coverage gaps and reduce high workload on existing units. In the short term, department planners recommended deploying currently available…