Since 2004, the Long Beach Fire Department has lost 30 sworn positions and is now below 1970’s staffing levels when the department responded to 5000 emergency calls, compared to 2010’s 48,525 calls. The Long Beach Firefighters are especially concerned about a city proposal to cut staffing onboard firefighting units from four to three, since this will cause completely unnecessary life-threatening delays.

California law requires that there must be four firefighters on scene before a unit can deploy personnel into a fire. If a unit arrives with only three firefighters, it has to wait for back-up wasting critical time since fire doubles in size every minute. Lost time results in greater danger to those in the building, those fighting the fire, the structure itself and surrounding neighbors.

Don’t take our word for it, please click on the following link to see what the experts say:

Four-Person Staffing Facts