Fourth in a series

Re: “White’s Journey: From Fires to Paramedic” 

On the eve of his first anniversary as chief of the Culver City Fire Dept., Dave White notes that this marks the 45th anniversary that Culver City firefighters have provided paramedic services.

The historic transformation seems long ago to many, not least Mr. White, a 27-year veteran who arrived a decade and a half after the changeover.

He stamps the community a pioneer. “The leaders here in Culver City embraced this mission early,” Mr. White said.

“Even today there are fire departments nationwide that don’t offer paramedic services.”

In reviewing the massive mission-change of American fire departments, Mr. White said that “around 1972ish, a landmark report was issued to Congress called ‘America Burning.’ It illustrated the fact that America had the worst fire loss problem in the world, including Third World countries, for lives lost and property losses.

“This caused the birth of a very aggressive program in prevention,” the chief said. “All of our fire prevention programs grew out of this report.

“Fire departments not only embraced this, they took a very pro-active posture in preventing fires in the first place, especially fire codes and building codes. That was the mission, and fire departments are responsible for that.”

Mr. White said that the number of fires per year steadily declined through the 1970s and ‘80s.

In Culver City, as in every other community, the agency still is called the “fire” department, not the paramedic department.

“Today,” Mr. White said, “we still have a robust Fire Prevention Division as part of the Fire Dept. They do a lot of work. We do over 2,700 inspections a year.”

(To be continued)