LAFD overtimes costs

Overtime pay for the Los Angeles Fire Department soared 60 percent over the last decade while its ranks grew just 17 percent, but there is no real effort to rein in the expense despite the city's budget crisis, a Daily News analysis found. Jason Kandel in the Daily News.

Los Angeles firefighters now average six times more overtime than their counterparts in Chicago, five times more than in Houston and two times more than in San Diego - a city that has roughly the same ratio of firefighters-to-residents as Los Angeles.