LBREPORT.com was on-scene and noticed that LBFD Engine 19 wasn't present...and has learned that because LB Fire Stations 17 and 18 no longer have Fire Engines (as a result of now-former Council majority approved budget reductions), Fire Engine 5 was dispatched from Station 5 on Wardlow Rd. at El Dorado Park...a distance of roughly 4+ miles from the fire scene. Engine 5 arrived nine minutes after the reporting call came in. (In photo below, Engine 11 from North Long Beach was also visible on scene as a backup.)

Firefighters say that as a rule of thumb, a fire doubles in size every minute. A Fire Engine (as opposed to a fire truck) is the only apparatus capable of actually putting water on a fire to extinguish it.

LBFD Public Information Officer / Firefighter Will Nash tells LBREPORT.com that the call came in at 12:34 p.m. and units declared the blaze knocked-down at 12:58 p.m.

The first LBFD unit on scene was Truck 17 [from Station 17 which no longer has a Fire Engine, see below.] LBFD Engine 5 was dispatched from Station 5 (Wardlow Rd. at El Dorado Park) and arrived at the Clark Ave./Harvey Way fire at 12:43 p.m. In addition to Engine 11 (NLB), Engines 12 (NLB) and 9 (Bixby Knolls) were also dispatched.

LBREPORT.com inquired about the whereabouts of Engine 19...and LBFD PIO / Firefighter Nash said Engine 19 was at the time of the fire involved in transporting/accompanying a medical patient to a hospital from an injury traffic accident at Carson St./Lakewood Blvd. Engine 19 didn't physically transport the patient but -- under the Rapid Medic Deployment system -- one the Engine's crew members (as on all LBFD Fire Engines now) is a trained firefighter-paramedic and handles tasks previously performed by one of two paramedics previously provided aboard LB paramedic ambulances (The ambulances now carry 1 paramedic and a lesser trained Emergency Medical Technician)

Under the Rapid Medic Deployment system, all LB Fire Engines (including Engine 19) go to the hospital to accompany patients until released at the hospital. In response to our inquiry, PIO Nash said Engine 19 was cleared from the hospital (became free for dispatch elsewhere) at 1:11 p.m. By that time, the Clark Ave. garage fire had been knocked down for over ten minutes.

LBREPORT.com has learned that LBFD requested "mutual aid" on the call from L.A. County Fire, which dispatched Fire Engine 45 from County Station 45 in Lakewood (Candlewood St. west of Lakewood Blvd., NW of Lakewood shopping center.) L.A. County Fire Capt. Morales at Station 45 told LBREPORT that LBFD had already arrived on scene when County Engine 45 arrived, and the County crew basically assisted LBFD early on in the response.

The Long Beach Rapid Medic Deployment model was developed by LB Fire Chief Mike DuRee in response to budget reductions advised by now-former Mayor Bob Foster in August 2012 and enacted -- over strenuous objections by the Long Beach Firefighters Association -- by now-former Council majorities. In various public fora, Long Beach Firefighters Association President Rex Pritchard predicted that the system would create unintended consequences...including tying up Fire Engines at the hospital on medical calls, during which they would be unavailable to deal with fires.

The "Rapid Medic Deployment" test system was deployed in Long Beach on July 10, 2014. Under approval granted by the L.A. County Emergency Medical Services Agency, the test could run up to two years.

In brief extemporaneous July 17 remarks (reported first again by LBREPORT.com) at the monthly meeting of 3rd district neighborhood groups held by newly elected Councilwoman Suzie Price, Fire Chief DuRee said the test of the new paramedic response system was "running seamlessly" with no issues whatsoever and across the board citywide is providing a paramedic to the scene of emergencies on an average of 90 seconds faster than before. (LBREPORT.com coverage here.

On June 10, 2014, Councilmembers Al Austin and [now exited] Gerrie Schipske and Steven Neal agendized an item, urging a delay in implementing the new system until discussion of the FY15 budget in August-Sept. 2014.

A substitute motion by Councilman Gary DeLong (seconded by Councilman Suja Lowenthal) sought to receive and file (take no action on) the Austin-Schipske-Neal item. It failed 4-4 (Yes: Lowenthal, DeLong, Andrews Johnson; No: O'Donnell, Schipske, Austin, Neal; Absent: Garcia). A vote was then taken to approve the Austin-Neal-Schipske item, which failed passage on a reverse 4-4 vote (Yes: O'Donnell, Schipske, Austin, Neal; No: Lowenthal, DeLong, Andrews, Johnson; Absent: Garcia).

Had then-voting Vice Mayor Garcia (now non-voting Mayor) Robert Garcia attended the regularly scheduled Council meeting, he would have had to cast a publicly recorded vote for or against the item. At start of the Council meeting, Mayor Foster announced that Garcia would be absent but gave no public explanation.

A large contingent of Long Beach Firefighters was present in the Council Chamber for the proceedings.

No member of the public spoke in favor of the change. Two members of the public -- a husband and wife, who said LB paramedics had saved the husband's life during a heart attack, and a mother who said paramedics had repeatedly saved the life of her child requiring special needs -- urged the Council not to support the change.

City management indicated that if the Council were to delay implementing the paramedic change through FY15, it would require $1.4 million that, it said, would have to come from the Fire Department's budget and amounts to roughly the cost of operating a fire engine staffed for a year.

Fire Chief Mike DuRee displayed a map (webcast screen save right) comparing jurisdictions statewide that use a paramedic staffing system delivering one paramedic plus a lesser trained emergency medical technician (in blue) versus Los Angeles County, Orange County and some northern CA areas (in red) that require two paramedics on every arriving medical vehicle.

Chief DuRee said that as a result of Long Beach implementing its paramedic test, Los Angeles City Hall is considering a similar paramedic staffing change.

Under budgets recommended by now-exited Mayor Bob Foster and enacted by now-exited former Council majorities, three LB Fire Stations (all in eastern Long Beach) no longer have fire stations capable of putting out fires. One of them is Fire Station 17 (near Clark/LCD), where it was unable to extinguish a fire across the street from it in January 2014, requiring a Fire Engine to arrive from further away (LBREPORT.com coverage here.) Station 18 (Palo Verde/Wardlow) was one of the first stations stripped of its fire engine (over the objections of then-Councilwoman Gerrie Schipske) by LBFD management during the Foster administration. Station 8 in Belmont Shore also remains a "ghost fire station" without a Fire Engine.

Further as newsworthy on LBREPORT.com