Fifth in a series. 

Re “White Talks of Fighting Fire with…”

With his first anniversary as chief of the Culver City Fire Dept. mere days away, Dave White was talking about how dramatically firefighting has changed.

“We still get a lot of fire calls,” he said, “but not nearly as many as the 1970s” when he was a schoolboy in Pasadena and when the focus on prevention intensified.

“The rate has been steady for the last 10 years. Looking at our statistics, I show 92 fires last year,” less than two a week.

Eleven were structure fires, and the remaining 81 mainly cars, brush, trash cans.

The question for Mr. White, a 27-year Culver City veteran, was whether the fire service has attracted a different type of person as the focus shifted from fires to medical emergencies.

“I am not sure how to answer,” he said, “because all of the firefighters I have known in my whole life have been very service-oriented. There always has been a pretty diverse skillset. Some firefighters have a trade background. They were carpenters or plumbers. Others had a more professional background.

“Off the cuff,” said Mr. White, “I would say we have not really been attracting a different type.”

Recruiting firefighters is Mr. White’s least worry. “The last time we did recruitment,” he said, “almost 1400 people applied. Of those 1400, we have hired maybe 12 from that group.”

How many recruiters can make this Dave White kind of boast?

“When we hire people, they typically stay 30 or more years,” he said. “We are not a stepping-stone department. Culver City enjoys a very good reputation in the fire service,’

“We are rated Class 1 by the Insurance Service Office, the highest rating available. Insurance company using that rating to establish insurance rates in this jurisdiction. We first earned this rating in 1995, and we have sustained it for 20 years.”

(To be continued)