L.A. County Will Ask City to Have Paramedics Respond to Emergencies in Calabasas

Los Angeles County fire officials said Friday they plan to ask city Fire Department paramedics to respond to medical emergencies in unincorporated Calabasas, where an office worker choked to death two months ago.

County officials said they hope to negotiate an “automatic aid” agreement with the city that will result in city paramedic ambulances’ being dispatched to calls outside the city limits at the western edge of the San Fernando Valley.

City ambulances are based in Woodland Hills and Canoga Park. The county’s paramedic squad is based at a fire station between Calabasas and Agoura Hills.

The county’s move follows a petition campaign initiated by Calabasas residents after the Oct. 11 choking death of Susan Becker. She was a marketing researcher who choked while eating pizza for lunch at her office on Calabasas Road.

Co-workers complained that county firefighters from a station a few blocks away were not trained or equipped to do paramedic work that might have saved the 25-year-old. The county paramedic squad arrived several minutes after the firefighters.

Suggestions Offered

After the incident, residents asked the county to consider placing a paramedic rescue squad at the Calabasas fire station. They argued that traffic jams predicted for next year when a project to widen Ventura Freeway starts will seriously delay paramedic service.

Fire officials, however, said they cannot afford the $450,000 yearly cost of a 24-hour rescue crew.

They also said Friday they have rejected the idea of assigning a paramedic to a firefighter position at the Calabasas station, at least for now.

Such a move would cut into fire-protection service, Assistant County Fire Chief Ray Shackleford said, adding that it would require the Calabasas fire engine to leave the community to pick up the paramedic after he accompanied victims by private ambulance to the nearest hospital emergency room in Canoga Park.

County paramedics do not drive their own ambulances as city paramedics do.

Choking Incident No Influence

Deputy County Fire Chief Paul Delaney said that Becker’s death had “little bearing” on the decision to seek a joint aid pact with the city.

He said Becker was dead when the first firemen arrived. And the county paramedic squad dispatched to Becker’s aid arrived in a timely manner from its Las Virgenes Road station, about six miles from the Calabasas Park area, he said.

Delaney said helicopter-borne paramedics based on a mountaintop halfway between Calabasas and Malibu can reach Calabasas within minutes.

But he said the mutual city-county medical-aid plan is something that is being considered for several communities along the Los Angeles city border.

City fire officials have indicated a willingness to approve such an agreement for the Calabasas area. They said similar mutual aid pacts now exist between Los Angeles and the cities of Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.

Carol T. Davis, the marketing research company owner who employed Becker, said Friday that Calabasas residents and business leaders plan to continue pressing for faster paramedic response.

“We’re contacting all our elected representatives from this area,” Davis said. “I just don’t want them to bamboozle us on this.”