L.A. fire officials unsure if budget cuts complicated response to drowning child in Bel Air

A 3-year-old boy died in a swimming pool accident last week in Bel Air on a day when one of the neighborhood’s fire engines had been shut down because of budget cuts, according to interviews and records obtained by The Times.

The remaining two units at the neighborhood firehouse had been sent to another emergency just 94 seconds before the agency’s dispatch center sounded the alarm for the swimming pool call, Los Angeles Fire Department dispatch records show.

The next-closest rescuers took more than 10 minutes to arrive after the 911 call was made as family members struggled to save the child, who had drowned in the pool.

In such life-and-death situations, experts noted, minutes and even seconds can make a difference.

"That little guy deserved the benefit of the doubt....He didn’t get it," said paramedic Bill Ramsey, who served on the department for 34 years before retiring earlier this month. "This just breaks my heart."

Battalion Chief Ronnie Villanueva said the engine company that was shut down is one-tenth to three-tenths of a mile closer to the house than the two units that responded to the drowning.

"There’s no way to tell if it would have made a difference," he said.

Villanueva said the cutbacks, which have required fire officials to shutter 15 fire engines and nine ambulances at different stations daily, are necessary to help close a $56.5-million shortfall in the department’s budget.

"It’s not something we want to do. It’s something we have to do," Villanueva said. The department suspended the cutbacks for at least one day on Monday because of the wildfires raging in Angeles National Forest.

The chain of events in the drowning incident began last Wednesday afternoon.

An ambulance with two paramedics and a so-called light force -- six firefighters on a truck company and engine company -- were at Station 37 on Veteran Avenue near UCLA. The station is designated the firehouse "first in" for the Bel Air neighborhood where the child drowned.

At 2:53 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department dispatch center, which takes all 911 calls, received a report of a person having difficulty breathing, according to the records and sources. The call was transferred to Fire Department dispatchers.

Less than two minutes later, the alarm sounded at Station 37 for the emergency on Midvale Avenue, which called for two units. The ambulance and light force arrived at that scene about two minutes later, the records show.

Meanwhile, the drowning call had been picked up by police dispatchers at 2:55 p.m. About a minute later, the alarm sounded for the drowning call at Station 71 on Beverly Glen Drive, which had the next-closest available units. A paramedic ambulance and engine company responded, according to records.

As the rescue units raced to the house, dispatchers were giving instructions over the telephone to family members as they tried to resuscitate the boy, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The rescuers normally would have been supervised by a paramedic captain about 3 miles away, at Station 19 on Sunset Boulevard. These captains, all veteran paramedics, serve as an extra set of eyes in fast-breaking emergencies and are liaisons with distraught family members and emergency room personnel.

But Station 19’s captain has been cut from the department’s budget. The next closest paramedic supervisor was assigned to Fire Station 68 at Washington Boulevard and La Brea Avenue, the records show. He was dispatched to head for the drowning scene at the same time as Station 71.

But he had to drive eight to 11 miles, depending on the route, in afternoon traffic through the Westside.

As the paramedic captain drove west, rescuers did a "swoop and scoop" and took the child to the hospital, Villanueva said.

The captain ended up meeting the rescuers at UCLA Medical Center, the sources said. The boy had been pronounced dead.

-- Robert J. Lopez

Photo: Los Angeles Times

Comments

[latimesshouldshutterpubliccomments]

What, nobody has anything vicious, cruel, and inflammatory to say here? I'm stunned.

[Parent of five]

My heart goes out to the family of the child I wish we could turn the clock back on every incident where loss of live occurs. I don't blame budget cuts because we cannot expect to keep a fire captain available at every instance just in case something happens. Society has to balance realistic expectations of service with the cost of that service. In these times it's not going to be business as usual and unfortunately this will result in outcomes with a higher negative impact. Nobody wants death or pain on their doorstep but nobody will champion higher taxes to facilitate expediante service. I weep for the little one who was denied a future as well as all those who die on the way to closed trama centers, victimized because of less law inforcement, and unable to afford college education because their is simply not enough finances. I don't have an answer I am simple tomorrows victim of todays priorities.

[Sophie]

This is horrible if truely linked to the cutbacks. And what about the lack of services in areas not as tony as Bel Air? Wait, those areas probably don't have the services/infrastructure to begin with...

[AdoptiveFather, Los Angeles CA]

Dead kids or cutting back bernard parks $450,000 retirement package?

Kids, you lose.

[AdoptiveFather, Los Angeles CA]

Beyond bernard's sweet deal, cost of his lifetime paid medical not included below, are thousands of other bureacrats drawing outrageous pensions.

And can we talk about the tens of millions paid out to the likes of Rodney King??

"........L.A.'s biggest pensioner is also its harbinger of doom
By Rich Connell
May 21, 2009

Los Angeles Councilman Bernard Parks, City Hall's budget committee chief who is warning that soaring payroll and pension costs threaten the city's financial stability, receives $22,000 a month in city retirement benefits, in addition to his $178,789 a year salary, records and interviews show.

A former Los Angeles Police Department chief who served 38 years on the force, Parks operates in a sensitive political role, heading the key council panel that has grappled with a recession-driven $530-million budget shortfall......."

[justlooking]

I do not think having a captain on the scene would have made any change in the outcome here. There were two trained paramedics who I am sure did all the right things and all that could have been done. The response time difference between the two stations involved was less than a minute. There is also nothing in this case to say that even if the station was not short a responder due to budget cuts it would have been able to respond any quicker because its units were out on a call, if the third unit was there, it may have been out assiting on the same call as the other two. The firefighters may have not been able to save the child this time but there is no saving that the budget cuts made any difference.

[Saul]

What is this reporting? This is a report on what if?

[loneranger1938]

Don't blame the rescue. What is a 3 year old doing that close to the pool alone?

[Richard]

One obvious question which was not covered in the article, how long was the child in the pool? So many if's and really on any given day with full staffing fire companies can be out of position. The reason false alarms are so devastating sending very important personnel and equipment on a wild goose chase. In the end whatever the reason a young child has died and for that my sincere sympathies to the family.

[P-Cat]

Tragic as it is, the boy died because of negligence, not a budget cut. If he had proper oversight, and if those responsible knew CPR (as ANYONE overseeing kids around a pool should), he'd be alive and well.

Let's not pass the buck here: He should never have been near that water, period.

[RAW]

If anything, overinflated salaries of unionized fire fighters should take the blame. If firefighters wouldn't be paid in excess of $120k per year as they are, the city could employ more firefighters and save more lifes.

So what's the real trade off here? I'd say less money towards cushy mansions for firefighters and less money towards their union's slush funds, more money towards saving 3 year olds. Unfortunately, tax payers don't have a union and thus, no say.

[Bruno]

Pensions and entitlements (such as "affordable housing" subsidies) are consuming the city's budget. It's time our local politicians said enough.

Taxpayer dollars should be used for vital services, such as those provided by the fire department, and not Utopian social engineering. Enough. People are dying now. It's time for real change in Los Angeles.

[Rachel]

This is a very unfortunate event. But California is in a budget crisis and cuts are being made. There have already been substantial cuts especially affecting lower income areas. People need to be realistic if they don't want their taxes raised tragedies will be a result. So next time you protest against tax increases realize there will be dire consequences.

[Gertrude]

It is truly sad a little boy died. It's not the cutbacks fault, it's the parents responsibility to supervise their child. Whether it was 10 minutes or 10 hours response time, the bottom line is the little boy should never have been put in the situation of needing paramedics.

[Rick]

I don't know if you can blame the tragic drowning of this little kid on budget cuts. The Fire Dept could have been there within minutes and he still could have died. If the child was under water for more than 5 minutes, his chances for survival were not very good.

[Carol]

One also needs to look at the circumstances of the child's drowning. If adults are present, keeping a constant watch, then there's no way the child would have spent any time deep underwater.

Were the adults more preoccupied with their own conversations? Could the adults swim? Were they too far from the pool to be able to see?

The adults responsible for this boy need to look at themselves first.

[mike]

Parent and Sophie are both right in their points: it's horrible and tragic, but many areas don't have all those fire stations so close to their homes in the first place.

There's a whole swath of the same district, for example, in the hills to the east of Beverly Glen where the boy lived, that are north of the cities of Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, accessed by an extremely gridlocked Sunset Strip (that belongs to West Hollywood), which are are from the nearest LA fire and police stations, and hard to get to especially during rush hour or even the night-time "club crawl." And West Hollywood is making the strip even denser and denser, putting up big projects that keep it gridlocked day and night. And this is also a "tony" area.

It isn't a matter of rich and poor necessarily, though the homeowner groups of Bel Air are a louder group than many. On the other hand, these homes pay a disproportionate amount of money in taxes and their argument is, they could move to another smaller city, and without dragging the huge poverty class along with them, have the services of Beverly Hills or San Marino. Fact is, they don't want to be taxed any higher, the budget in city and state IS a mess, and the best we can hope for is that cuts are made fairly until the economy improves enough to restore all these services.

I'm concerned that this article is being written at the behest of the Firefighters Union which is in a tense negotiation battle with the city, and has sent out mailers and is all over talk radio blaming the mayor and administration for "killing people" with these cuts. Fact is, the Firefighters Union (like the Police Union) is refusing to cut back on the generous pensions that are bankrupting this city, and are using these tragedies as some sort of bargaining chip. (They sent out a mailer showing the bodies after the Chatsworth train tragedy as more of what will happen.)

These two unions are openly political, pushing for Republicans (who, ironically, are allegedly more fiscally conservative and oppose taxes). Meanwhile also, two firefighters just were awarded $8 MILLION between the two of them in alleged discrimination lawsuits. (One of them is bargaining on behalf of their union against the city.) Those crazy jury awards are taking money away from public safety and the operation of the firestations and personnel too. It's so maddening that money is being siphoned off from these basic life and death services.

[Mike Mills]

This is not new. These articles need to be written before it happens in some well to do neighborhood where you think it matters. As if some POOR family in Anaheim or elsewhere has not dealt with such things and you never even acknowledge them. By the way, BH, BA and many of these other(upscale) neighborhoods have their own security, police, fire, garbage trucks that pick up trash daily(imagine that). Spend some of the money on some type of response team that can help handle situations like this. My condolence does go to the family. Sorry for your loss.

[L.A. Max]

The facts, so far, appear to be straightforward.

The reduction in force reduced the capacity of the LAFD to respond. The city officials were warned. They did not listen. Now a child is dead.

Budget cuts have consequences. The dead child is one one of them.

[more info?]

Why did they send two units to the first "difficulty breathing" call?

("Less than two minutes later, the alarm sounded at Station 37 for the emergency on Midvale Avenue, which called for two units. The ambulance and light force arrived at that scene about two minutes later, the records show.")

light force? Somebody explain that one in plain English.

[Jerry Winstein]

Instead of cutting fire tucks, what about the large salaries firefighters are paid. We all appreciate their work, but their services are not worth 6 figure salaries. I am not trying to be insensitive to the 2 firefighters who lost their lives in the wild fires, but the vast majority of emergency calls are not extreme fires and emergencies (although this one was).

[debbie]

This is so very tragic. Whether he died or survived because or not because of the budget cuts, who knows. My question is, where was the supervision? Parents, sitter, day-care provider? I understand kids are quick and things happen in a split second, but why was the pool so accesible to this child? 3 years old, unsupervised? In todays times? So very sad.

[Ruben Dominguez]

It's a peculiar thing, that this boy's drowning, tragic as it clearly is, has merited a small article in the L.A. Times about the state budget cuts and their impact on the lives of the locals in Belair. What I wonder though, is were this boy located in a different, less affluent part of Los Angeles, this report would even find it's way on to the pages of the L.A. Times or it's website?

[Frogeye]

For far too long, politicians and bureaucrats have taken it as their sworn duty to make budget cuts where they will hurt and be felt the most. It is their vindictive way of telling the people, "If you won't give us more money, we'll punish you and make you pay in other ways." This enables them to continue in their profligate spending on pet projects that could not stand the test of close examination to see if they were of ANY benefit.

Police and fire services are the first and foremost obligations of any Government. To punish the people in this manner is despicable.

[Crash Burn]

You filthy money grubbing pigs make me sick. You are so in love with your money you would rather cling to your dollar bills than pay for adequate services to keep children safe and educate them. You cheapskates are the problem. Your crocodile tears are so disingenuous it is disgusting.