LAFD Suspends Cost-Cutting For Brush Fire Season

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Fire Department is suspending a cost-cutting measure in order to return 15 engine companies to service every day during the peak brush fire season.

The move announced Thursday by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and fire Chief Millage Peaks involves redeploying firefighters currently assigned to administrative duties.

The Fire Department has been using a system of rotating closures of engine companies in response to a 10 percent reduction in its operating budget.

Los Angeles firefighters responded to more grass and brush fires in the first half of 2010 than in the same period last year. In 2009, the department responded to 102 brush fires in Los Angeles and 173 outside the city.

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