As a storm rolls through Southern California on Tuesday, Los Angeles City Fire Captain Erik Scott said his department is leaning forward.
“We increased our staffing last night, starting at 6 p.m. with adding additional resources and firefighters that we strategically pre-positioned around the city,” he told L.A.’s Morning News. “So that's anything from extra fire engines to swift water rescue teams that we expect to be busy today. We even bring out some heavy equipment like bulldozers in case we have to move a lot of mud and debris, and extra helicopter pilots - because we do hoist rescues when it rains a lot- and hand crews.”
He added that Interim Fire Chief Ronnie Villanueva has been working with Mayor Karen Bass to “ensure that they have a robust amount of pre-deployments.”
“They want to just make sure that we're doing everything we can to be ready for whatever that natural disaster might be,” he said. “From wildfire to now, rains that could include flooding, mudslides, and debris flows.”
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When it comes to rain, Capt. Scott said it comes down to two things - rate and duration.
“If it's slow and steady, Mother Earth is a sponge and she'll absorb that,” he said. “But if it comes down in tense over short time periods, that's when we see the hillsides giving way, especially when the recent burn areas, where you don't have the root structure to hold that earth in place.”
Another issue Captain Scott said the department will be dealing with is car crashes. As of 7:30 a.m., he said the department had responded to over 30 crashes.
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