Fire Engines Photos

The designation DPL222 might suggest that LFB operates this number of rescue pump ladders. However the front line number is just over one hundred, backed up by around forty more without 13.5 meter ladders at two pump stations. This combined strength of 140 pumps in total compares to 212 when the current LFB organization was first created.

In addition, although LFB mentions in public comments that pump crews are “four to six and five on average”, more recent admissions are that crews are usually at the minimum level. This means eight at two pump stations and five at a one pump station.

This does not compare very favorably to most European cities. The great majority of these have minimum crews of five or six, with even larger crews on heavy pumpers in the Netherlands, Germany and France.

Although most big cities in the US have five person crews, some do have four man crews, especially in the South and West. These reflect very low population density in sprawling new suburbs, resulting in having more fire stations on the ground than in older cities. But Los Angeles operates its two pump stations with a total of six crew members! The recent fire disaster there was to some extent a direct result of this kind of staffing nonsense.

Ed: Grenfell enquiry showed that the disaster was principally a failure of building regulation, not firefighting, thought the brigade accepts shortcomings of preparation and training. The scandal is one of deregulation going back decades.

Added by Rob Johnson on 06 May 2025.

Rob, looking at the LFB fleet list available on the Fire Brigade Society which was last updated April 24, the numbering for DPL's starts at 150 up to 337 of which 29 are reserves, 10 allocated to training and 5 based at the fire service college makes for 143 in frontline operation.

Ed: the first Mark 3 Atego was numbered DPL150 and allocated toLleytonstone originally.

Added by Sean Griffiths on 06 May 2025.

Thanks, but I was actually referring to the recent California fire disaster, which - among other problems - was exacerbated by woefully inadequate staffing by both LA city and LA County departments. With a fire risk profile much like Marseilles in France, these agencies had less than half as many personnel per capita as that city, and also only around 40% as many as Chicago or New York City.

As for Grenfell, the inquiry pointed out no less than twenty eight areas for improvement by LFB, including greatly increasing the response to high rise fires and - amazingly - suggesting that the brigade actually start training firefighters in how to deal with high rise fires!

Added by Rob Johnson on 06 May 2025.

Latest online information suggests LAFD have officer plus 3 FF on the first engine and only the driver on the second engine. Ladder companies are officer and four FF

Added by Martin Baumann on 06 May 2025.

Sean: Thanks. It seems the forty or so second pumps at two pump stations do not carry a 13.5 meter ladder and are not considered to be “rescue pump ladders”. If we include them along with the 100 front line DPLs then we arrive at your quoted 143 total front line units. 29 reserves seems quite a large number, at around 20% of the front line operational fleet, so the brigade should never be at a loss to find reserves. On the subject of reserves, LFB appears to have no system for recalling off duty personnel when things get busy. Many fire brigades in other countries have recall protocols to bring off duty personnel back to fire stations to staff reserve appliances, which seems to be a very simple and useful idea.

Added by Rob Johnson on 07 May 2025.

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