Los Angeles Fire Department FIRE PREVENTION NEWS 2nd Quarter / 7
th
Issue
Fire Prevention and Public Safety Bureau
Reducing False Alarms - AKA “Unwanted Alarms” By Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas Over the past several months, the Fire Prevention and Public Safety Bureau (FPB) in conjunction with Emergency Operations have been developing a program to reduce the number of false alarms. False alarms are now being referred to as “unwanted alarms”. The terminology has changed to more accurately reflect what is occurring. An alarm may activate due to detecting smoke from overheating food in a microwave oven. This is not a false alarm, but it is an unwanted alarm. Unwanted alarms continue to increase; taking needed resources away from more critical responses. The False Alarm Reduction Pilot Program encompasses a multi-faceted approach to reduce unwanted false alarms. The plan includes: • Training • Simplifying data entry • Use of Brycer (The Compliance Engine) • Increasing testing and repairs at problem buildings • Community outreach
May 2016
Message from the Fire Marshal FPB 100 Years Strong By Deputy Chief, John Vidovich
BUREAU COMMANDER Deputy Chief John Vidovich ASSISTANT BUREAU COMMANDER Assistant Chief Kwame Cooper Commander Battalion Chief Admin Andrew Wordin Commander Battalion Chief Metro Rail Michael Thomas Commander Battalion Chief Industrial Commercial Ernest Bobadilla Commander Battalion Chief Public Safety Jerome Boyd Fire Development Services, Senior Fire Protection Engineer Hani Malki CUPA Manager Royce Long OFFICE
213-978-3570 Office 213-978-3516 Fax
Email:
lafd.firemarshal @lacity.org
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On June 16, 1916, the City Council approved Ordinance No. 34352 creating a Bureau of Fire Prevention and Public Safety (FPB). Chief Engineer Eley placed Captain Charles Hawley in command. Captain Hawley’s staff included only a Fire Prevention Engineer, a Deputy Fire Prevention Engineer and a few Fire Inspectors. However, six unpaid Inspectors, selected from outside the Department, assisted them. By April 16, 1918, the FPB had grown to 25 Inspectors. As fire prevention efforts and responsibilities increased, Chief Eley formed an Arson Bureau and made it part of fire prevention. Today, staff assigned to the Fire Prevention and Public Safety Bureau, provide needed customer service to six offices located strategically throughout the City. Considering the FPB’s historical beginnings, it is obvious the responsibilities of the Department’s fire prevention personnel have dramatically changed. In an effort to meet the demands of constituents, we continue to evolve. Changing roles for fire prevention personnel are driven not only by the residents of Los Angeles, but also by outside governmental agencies, new regulations and enacted legislation, and the ever-increasing advances in technology.
FPB is currently developing training on the new NFIRS codes as well as refresher training on notice writing with a specific focus on sections of the Fire Code that relate to false alarms. Additionally, an updated Department Bulletin is being drafted. For the pilot program to be successful, it will require the effort of all members to ensure we are following Department policy and properly documenting false alarms. With our continued effort, we will be able to significantly reduce our unwanted alarm responses throughout the City of Los Angeles. More information will be forthcoming as we make progress on this important initiative.
I am excited that we are evolving to a metric driven and technology sophisticated bureau as we meet the Mayor’s and Fire Chief’s “Back to Basics” agenda.
Overdue Inspections In February 2015, it was identified that there was 10,013 overdue maintenance inspections. Eleven months later
To commemorate our 100 year anniversary, a FPB challenge coin is being designed and will be given to every FPB member. Keep up the good work.
and a lot of hard work from our Inspectors and Captains, the list of overdue inspection has been cleaned up by 99.4 percent. The 33 inspections that are left are pending legal and inspection approvals. This accomplishment could not have been done with out the combined effort of all members within the Industrial Commercial Section and Public Safety Sections. A big thank you to all. The below graph illustrates the monthly decline in overdue inspections.
CUPA Section Gets New Manager Royce Long, new CUPA Program Manager for the Fire Prevention and Public Safety Bureau as of February 21, 2016. Since 1994, he has been regulating environmental programs. He began his career with Brisbane City Council, Australia then moving to California in 2001 where he continued his career with the County of Orange Environmental Health Division. He has an Environmental Health Degree, from Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, and is a member of the CUPA Forum Board. He has also presented numerous times on technology and business workflows at the annual CUPA Conference. Royce has a keen interest in enforcement and providing a fair playing field for businesses. His two most notable cases include the largest penalty for environmental harm in Queensland at the time and most recently multiple State-wide settlements based off mismanagement of hazardous waste at a reverse logistics company operating out of Orange County (OC). The OC CUPA also revamped their Administrative Enforcement Order process resulting in more than 40 AEO's and over $600K in penalties in one fiscal year. In his new role with LAFD, Royce believes the major challenges going forward with the CUPA essentially revolve around program stability. Recruiting an experienced Manager permanently assigned to the Section and maintaining a stable and well-trained team of experienced inspection staff to implement the program will go a long way to seeing the program develop the momentum it needs and credibility that it deserves. On a more granular level, he believes there are opportunities to continue with the development of technology, modification of the inspection programs, improving billing workflows, enhancing program reporting and quality assurance and providing program direction. The CUPA program is scheduled for the next triennial State evaluation in 2017. Between now and then Royce will be focused on addressing existing deficiencies, implementing program improvements and building the LAFD CUPA team. Los Angeles Fire Department
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Los Angeles Fire Department