L.A. mayor, fire chief announce measures to prevent dangerous blazes

After an unusually high number of fire deaths this year, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Fire Chief Ralph Terrazas announced new initiatives Monday to prevent dangerous blazes.

Terrazas said the Fire Department is launching a pilot program in Watts in which firefighters will canvass neighborhoods to provide smoke alarms and batteries for homes. Detectors and batteries are also available for free at all 106 fire stations in the city, he said.

So far in 2014, there have been 20 deaths from structure fires, which is close to the average yearly total for the city, Terrazas said.

“That is 20 deaths too many,” he said.

There were 20 fire-related deaths last year, 22 in 2012, 21 in 2011 and 23 in 2010.

In 16 of the cases this year, there were either no fire alarms in the home or existing fire alarms weren’t working, Terrazas said. Functioning smoke alarms increase the chance of surviving a fire by roughly 50%, he added.

The department will also team up with the American Red Cross in the organization’s national effort to provide 500,000 smoke alarms to neighborhoods with high fire fatality rates.

Jarrett Barrios, chief executive of the American Red Cross Los Angeles Region, said 40% of fire fatalities occur in homes without functioning smoke alarms. The initiative to provide alarms could have a big effect on the 4% of homes that don’t have them.

Given the high number of fire fatalities this year in Los Angeles, Barrios called the initiative “well-timed and not soon enough.”

The Fire Department has also formed a Fire Casualty Reduction Task Force, which will analyze fire deaths to determine what new prevention measures may be needed.

soumya.karlamangla@latimes.com

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