LETTER: This Is a Recipe for Disaster

Editor,

It is officially fire season.

On July 5, Fire Station 96 will be losing 1 captain, 3 firefighters, a fire engine and a fire truck. When you drive by this station you may see these vehicles, but there won't be anyone to drive them.  We will still pay the same amount of taxes as everyone else, but will not get the protection we need and have always relayed on.

Chatsworth is bordered on the north and west by mountains, and brush covered hillsides.  There are no fire stations around these areas.  Chatsworth has experienced some of the worst brush fires in this state:  We have lost many homes, properties, wildlife, horse properties, and businesses over these years.  Our fire fighters at Station 96 know this mountainous territory, the small winding streets and horse ranches, they know all the routes in and out of our mobile home communities, the convalescent homes, Rockpointe condominiums, commercial districts, and kennels. as well as our elementary middle and high schools and the Minnie Palmer Historical house in Chatsworth.

Recently Chatsworth has been the site of the following incidents:

1. A house fire at Rockpointe Condominums, the residents were asleep when the fire started.  The fire was knocked down in 13 minutes.
2. A child living on Larwin Street was airlifted to Children's Hospital.
3. A student at Chatsworth High School was killed by a hit and run driver on DeSoto Avenue.
4. A teenager was airlifted to Children's Hospital after a dirt bike crash in the mountains above the cemetery.
5. Firefighters responded to a fire in a commercial building (and also found a pot farm inside).
6. An Amtrak train hit and killed a confused pedestrian.
7. A large fire in a commercial building requiring 118 firefighters on the scene.
8. June 13 there was a crash between a car and a motorcyclist on DeSoto and Tulsa.

I left out a few more incidents: a child airlifted from near drowning, paramedic got him breathing; a large brush fire at 118 and DeSoto, and a big rig overturned on the 118.

All of the above incidents occurred  in addition to the numerous, daily responses to traffic accidents, heart attack, strokes and countless other home emergencies.

In 2008, Chatsworth was the scene of a major tragedy between a Metrolink train and a Union Pacific freight train.  Our fire stations were there in minutes with all the equipment and expertise to greatly reduce the suffering and injuries of all the victims.  

The next closest fire truck (hook and ladder) was about 15 minutes or more away in Porter Ranch.  I don't have the exact response time. Chatsworth has a new bus line , complete with a new bridge over Lassen Street, Metrolink has added more trains, freight trains from Union Pacific Railroad come across Devonshire several times a day, sometimes blocking the street for 10 minutes.

In minutes a house can burn down.  After 4 minutes without CPR the chance of surviving a heart attack is decreased exponentially.  We live in a high risk fire danger area.  There are no other fire stations to our north and west with the ability to respond in a timely manner.  We need our firefighters, hook and ladder truck,  fire engines, paramedics.  All have paramedic trained personnel on their engines.

 The City has assured us that the equipment and vehicles will be there at our station, there just will not be anyone there to operate them.  Firefighters will have to be called in from other locations to operate the equipment and man the vehicles.  Where will they come from?  It can take hours to find and man the equipment and hours of paperwork to do so.

Does any of this make sense?  We do not deserve this kind of treatment.  We pay taxes like every person and community.  Officials never consulted this community regarding their new deployment plan, they just implemented it.  Say NO to this plan, we are not satisfied with their decisions.

It is a recipe for disaster.

Michele DeGaetano
Chatsworth