To Los Angeles Metropolis Council members looking out desperately for cuts amid a price range disaster, the Fireplace Division’s emergency incident technicians are “drivers” whose most important position is chauffeuring battalion chiefs to emergencies.

However LAFD officers say the place is way more than that. Emergency incident technicians are firefighters who play a key position in coordinating the response to fires, and shedding them would put lives in danger, in accordance with LAFD interim Chief Ronnie Villanueva.

“That is going to come back again and chew us. This isn’t a matter of them simply being a driver. It’s not a driver. It’s important to simply take that out of your minds of transporting somebody someplace,” Villanueva mentioned, addressing the Metropolis Council’s price range committee at a listening to on Thursday.

5 months after the Palisades fireplace destroyed 1000’s of properties and prompted questions on whether or not the Fireplace Division was geared up to struggle such a large blaze, the price range committee moved ahead with a advice to chop the emergency incident technician positions.

Of the 42 positions, 27 are at present crammed. These firefighters wouldn’t lose their jobs however can be reassigned, saving the town greater than $7 million within the subsequent fiscal yr and about $10 million yearly after that, in accordance with Metropolis Administrative Officer Matt Szabo.

The town is dealing with a virtually $1-billion price range shortfall largely on account of rising personnel costs, soaring legal payouts and a slowdown within the native financial system. Mayor Karen Bass’ 2025-26 price range proposal, which steered shedding greater than 1,600 metropolis workers, didn’t embody reassigning the emergency incident technicians.

The price range committee, which harassed that the general Fireplace Division price range is rising, additionally advisable nixing Bass’ plan for creating a brand new unit inside the division that will have added 67 workers to handle points stemming from the homelessness disaster.

At Thursday’s price range listening to, Councilmember Tim McOsker, who has two kids who’re firefighters, argued for slicing the emergency incident technician place, calling it “mainly an aide.”

When Villanueva requested McOsker to place a value on a firefighter’s life, McOsker mentioned, “Invaluable.”

“I can say the identical factor about very most of the 1,300 positions we’re slicing, as a result of we’re additionally going to not be doing sidewalks, streets, curbs, gutters, tree trimming, altering out lights, making our communities protected,” McOsker added. “The truth is we’ve to steadiness a price range.”

The price range committee has despatched its preliminary suggestions to Chief Legislative Analyst Sharon Tso, the Metropolis Council’s high coverage advisor, who on Friday will current the committee with a full menu of methods for slicing prices whereas preserving as many providers as doable. The committee is then anticipated to finalize its suggestions and ship the proposed price range to the total council, which should approve a closing price range by the tip of the month.

On the way in which to a scene, a “command workforce” consisting of a chief and an emergency incident technician “is likely to be accountable to offer path to the rescue of a trapped firefighter or civilians, firefighter monitoring, and deal with the chance administration of a quickly escalating incident,” Capt. Erik Scott, an LAFD spokesperson, mentioned in a press release.

“The extra advanced the incident, the larger the necessity for Emergency Incident Technicians to facilitate emergency incident mitigation,” Scott added, with the varieties of incidents together with “construction fires, brush fires, multi-casualty incidents, earthquakes, prepare collisions, constructing collapses, energetic shooter, airport and port emergencies and so on.”

Gregg Avery, who retired final yr as a battalion chief after 37 years with the LAFD, mentioned that in his profession, emergency incident technicians had been referred to as aides, then workers assistants. However Avery considered them extra as companions. The 4 EITs who labored for him usually helped him with strategic choices, and he inspired them to query his choices and provide recommendation.

“The EIT occurs to drive the automotive. However to name them a driver is a bit demeaning and a bit minimizing,” he mentioned.

Whereas an EIT drives a battalion chief to a fireplace or different emergency, each work the radios to develop methods for tackling the scenario, in accordance with Avery and a video produced by the LAFD. They convey with fireplace commanders, firefighters on the scene, law enforcement officials and businesses such because the Division of Water and Energy and the U.S. Forest Service.

On the scene, they work with the incident commander to maintain observe of firefighters and different personnel — an important position in chaotic conditions when forgetting a single firefighter’s location may very well be deadly, each Villanueva and Avery mentioned.

However on the Thursday price range listening to, Villanueva struggled to articulate what EITs do once they aren’t responding to scenes.

“They go to fireplace stations they usually ship mail. They speak concerning the present occasions. If there’s any questions they have to be requested … the EIT will help with these. They do staffing,” Villanueva mentioned.

Based on Avery, EITs act as liaisons between firefighters and battalion chiefs. Since they’re firefighters themselves and members of the labor union, they’ll relate to the rank-and-file, Avery mentioned.

The EIT positions had been reduce as soon as earlier than — in 2010, throughout one other main price range crunch within the Nice Recession. Since then, the division has been including them again.

Avery remembers working with out an EIT after the cuts.

“Emergency operations had been profoundly totally different and never nearly as good,” he mentioned.