Westwood Fire Station Prepares for Busy Holiday Weekend

Fire stations including the one in Westwood are increasing staffing for the Fourth of July weekend. Local fire officials are expecting more calls but few encounters with illegal fireworks. On the Westside as a whole, firefighters will be keeping a close eye on parched hillsides.  

Westwood’s fire station will temporarily restore previously cut positions to operate on all cylinders over the weekend. The station does not have advance plans to send its officers to other parts of the city, said Capt. Kevin Rudd.

“If something were to happen, we would [send backup],” Rudd said.

The Fourth of July weekend is traditionally the busiest one of the year in terms of the number of emergency responses, said Los Angeles Fire Department public service officer Matt Spence. During summer holidays, brushfires, traffic accidents, assaults and injuries are all seen in greater volume, he noted.

“We do take some extra steps in staffing appropriately in anticipating for different types of events,” Spence said.

The Westwood station receives about 1,400 calls on average per week. That number is likely to increase over this weekend, Rudd said.

The station does not expect issues with wayward fireworks, which are outlawed by the city, he said.

“From this region, from the time I’ve spent here, [illegal fireworks] are really not a problem with us,” Rudd said. “There’s other parts of the city where it’s a huge problem.”

Law enforcement collects a large number of illegal fireworks in the city every year, said Christopher No, an officer in the Los Angeles Police Department's media relations department. “You have to be very careful of fireworks and who you buy them from,” he said.