Los Angeles Fire Department

The Los Angeles Fire Department is one of the most active and closely followed public safety agencies in Southern California. Serving the City of Los Angeles from 106 neighborhood fire stations across roughly 470 square miles, the LAFD responds to an enormous variety of calls every day, including structure fires, medical emergencies, traffic collisions, brush fires, technical rescues, hazardous materials incidents, airport emergencies, and major disaster responses.

For scanner listeners, the LAFD has long been one of the most interesting fire departments to monitor. Unlike many modern public safety agencies that operate primarily on trunked radio systems, the LAFD continues to make extensive use of conventional 800 MHz radio channels. This makes the department’s radio traffic especially accessible to scanner hobbyists with the proper receiver and programming.

The LAFD radio system reflects the size and complexity of the city itself. Dispatch and tactical channels support operations across dense urban neighborhoods, high-rise districts, hillside communities, freeways, industrial areas, the Port of Los Angeles, Los Angeles International Airport, Van Nuys Airport, and the brush-covered canyons and wildland-urban interface areas that are so familiar to Southern California listeners.

Monitoring LAFD radio traffic can provide a valuable real-time picture of fire and rescue activity throughout the city. Listeners may hear everything from routine medical dispatches and traffic collisions to greater-alarm structure fires, brush responses, helicopter operations, major incident command traffic, and mutual-aid coordination with surrounding agencies. For SCMA members and other radio enthusiasts, the LAFD remains one of the classic Southern California public safety monitoring targets.

LAFD Command and Operations Channels

FrequencyToneAlpha TagDescriptionMode
860.937585.4 PLLAFD 1Operations South BureauFM
859.937588.5 PLLAFD 2Operations Central BureauFM
858.937591.5 PLLAFD 3Operations Valley BureauFM
857.937594.8 PLLAFD 4Dispatch – EMS (South of Mulholland)FM
856.937597.4 PLLAFD 5Alternate Control – Wildland / River Rescue IncidentsFM
858.2375131.8 PLLAFD 6ALERT 6 / EMERGENCY TRIGGERFM
859.4375192.8 PLLAFD 7Dispatch – Fire (South of Mulholland)FM
858.4375103.5 PLLAFD 8Dispatch – Fire/EMS (North of Mulholland)FM
857.2375107.2 PLLAFD 9Alternate Control – Structure Fire IncidentsFM
856.2375123.0 PLLAFD 10CommandFM
860.7625127.3 PLLAFD 11CommandFM
857.4375141.3 PLLAFD 13Operations West BureauFM

LAFD Tactical Channels

FrequencyToneAlpha TagDescriptionMode
860.4375186.2 PLLAFD 12TacticalFM
856.4375146.2 PLLAFD 14TacticalFM
859.7625151.4 PLLAFD 15TacticalFM
858.7625162.2 PLLAFD 16TacticalFM
857.7625167.9 PLLAFD 17TacticalFM
856.7625173.8 PLLAFD 18TacticalFM
855.0125205 DPLLAFD 19TacticalFMN
855.7625205 DPLLAFD 20TacticalFMN
769.05625156.7 PLLAFD 7NAT01DTacticalFMN
769.06875156.7 PLLAFD 7NAT02DTacticalFMN
774.99375156.7 PLLAFD 7NAT03DTacticalFMN

LAFD Supplemental Tactical Channels

FrequencyToneAlpha TagDescriptionMode
851.0125156.7 PL8TAC90CallingFM
851.5125156.7 PL8TAC91TacticalFM
852.0125156.7 PL8TAC92TacticalFM
852.5125156.7 PL8TAC93TacticalFM
853.0125156.7 PL8TAC94TacticalFM
853.9875156.7 PLCA FIRE 1Tactical – LAX Crash Crews Primary (Simplex)FM

LAFD Air Operations

FrequencyToneAlpha TagDescriptionMode
119.975CSQLAFD A/A 1Helicopters Air-AirAM
136.025CSQLAFD A/A 2Helicopters Air-AirAM
154.83100.0 PLLAFD A/GAir to GroundFMN

This Page Revised March 28, 2026

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