On Thursday, April 12, 2007 at 1:00 PM, 29 Companies of Los Angeles Firefighters, 3 LAFD Rescue Ambulances, 1 Arson Unit, 1 Rehab Unit, 5 Helicopters, 1 EMS Battalion Captain, 9 Battalion Chief Officer Command Teams, 1 Division Chief Officer Command Team, 2 Dozers, 5 Brush Patrols, 1 Command Post Vehicle, a variety of support staff including 11 LAFD CERT Team Members, and Fire Companies from L.A. County, Santa Monica, Culver City, and Beverly Hills all under the direction of Deputy Chief Mario Rueda responded to a Major Emergency Brush Fire near Beverly Dr. and Hillcrest Dr. in the City of Beverly Hills near the City of Los Angeles border.

Predicted high wind conditions prompted LAFD officials to pre-deploy additional Firefighters and apparatus to various areas of the City. These resources are then used to augment the initial assignment dispatched to reported fires, thereby giving the Incident Commander a greater Firefighting force immediately upon arriving on scene.

At 1:00 PM, a Beverly Hills Fire Company notified the LAFD Dispatch Center that they were on scene of a two-acre brush fire that was burning into the City of Los Angeles. A full brush assignment, including 3 water dropping helicopters, was immediately dispatched to the incident. Upon arrival of LAFD Firefighters, the Incident Command System was implemented and Firefighters were assigned to provide structure protection to homes threatened by the fire and begin attacking the fire in an effort to prevent it's spread into adjacent homes.

High winds, in excess of 50 Miles Per Hour, drove the fire through the dry brush with lightning speed. Firefighters from L. A. County, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, and Culver City, pelted with wind driven embers, stood side-by-side with Los Angles Firefighters providing a human shield protecting the residents and their belongings from a potential disaster.

The wind driven embers spreading throughout the community, ignited the roofs of 3 large homes causing extensive damage to two of them and moderate damage to one. None of the burned homes were threatened directly by the fire, however, all three homes were clad with wood shake roofs allowing the embers to embed and ignite the homes, causing extensive damage.

All three homes were located within the city of Beverly Hills.

In all, over 200 Firefighters worked for more than 4 hours protecting the community in an effort to gain control and extinguish the fire. The fire was limited to approximately 15 acres. Firefighters remained in place throughout the night overhauling the homes, extinguishing hot spots, and patrolling the area for flare-ups.

As this conflagration was unfolding, LAFD Firefighter Dispatchers were also faced with managing a significant increase in wind related calls, including at least six other structure and brush fires. Additional LAFD dispatch consoles were activated by off-watch personnel thereby doubling the dispatch center staff.

For 3 hours, LAFD dispatchers answered 9-1-1 calls for help, managing hundreds of resources committed to emergency incidents, all while dispatching Fire Department units to an average of one emergency incident every 15 seconds.

The Command Staff at the Operations Control Dispatch Center monitor all Radio traffic for incidents in progress. Due to the intense the call load, and multitude of large scale incidents, monitoring all radio traffic became a daunting task. Fortunately, due to the training and field experience of the Firefighter/Paramedic Dispatchers and Command Staff, all calls for help were appropriately triaged and resources allocated to effectively manage these incidents.

The cause of the fire was determined to be wires downed in the wind which ignited the brush. The dollar loss is still being tabulated and will be assessed by the Beverly Hills Fire Department. No injuries were reported during this incident. Over two-hundred residents were evacuated for their safety and to allow Firefighters the opportunity to safely conduct firefighting operations.

Video

Dispatch and Tac Channels - First 30 Minutes, The Next 20 minutes, The Next 50 Minutes
(All incidents in progress.)

Submitted by Ron Myers, Spokesman
Los Angeles Fire Department