The head of the Los Angeles firefighters’ union Tuesday blamed department-wide cutbacks for injuries suffered by three first responders battling a church fire, which he alleges was able to get out of control because of a slow response.
Flames ripped through the all-wooden Crouch Memorial Pentecostal Church of God in Christ Tuesday morning, its roof collapsing as firefighters battled the blaze that investigators believe started in the attic.
Two firefighters were trapped under burning debris on the church’s second floor, LAFD Capt. Jaime Moore said. One was taken to a hospital, and the other was treated on scene.
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A third firefighter may have suffered electrical shock as he worked with a ladder pipe, Moore said.
Frank Lima, the head of the union United Firefighters of Los Angeles City, said his members' injuries and the damage to the church were consequences of cutbacks at a nearby fire station - and department-wide.
"The fire that we faced today... unveiled a problem of permanent closures that the fire department faced due to budget cuts several years ago, back in 2008," he said.
The department has lost some 700 firefighters to attrition and has not hired a new firefighter in five years, he said. The agency had about 3,800 firefighters then, and has roughly 3,100 now.
"Our firefighters, the citizens and members of that church would have had better odds had (the nearby fire station been restored to its 2008 staffing levels). That's a fact."
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More than 150 firefighters took nearly four hours to extinguish the blaze, which broke out in a densely populated neighborhood. Firefighters protected nearby homes from blowing embers.
Investigators said the cause of the fire has not been determined, but the pastor’s theory that it was sparked after he turned on a months-dormant wall heater is possible.
A multi-agency House of Worship Arson Task Force will be part of the investigation, a standard procedure involving church fires.
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