2 Oakland Fire Stations Close Amid Budget Crisis, and More Could Soon Follow

As two Oakland fire stations shutter temporarily Monday, with potentially more to follow next month, firefighters are calling on the city to roll back the cost-saving closures, saying they could put Oaklanders’ lives at risk.

Stations in Grass Valley and Woodminster will close for more than six months beginning this week as the city slashes spending across departments to cure a nearly $130 million budget deficit. The fire station closures are the first of two phases that would shut down almost 30% of the Fire Department’s services, firefighter Chris Robinson said at a Monday press conference before the City Council’s first meeting of the year.

“The closure of three fire stations is problematic, but the city administrator’s proposal to close four more stations next month would be catastrophic,” he said, surrounded by dozens of current and former first responders. “These cuts are a tragedy waiting to happen. The city administrator needs to reopen the closed stations and not move forward with additional closures. The amount of money it will save is not worth the potential cost in lives.”

Public safety cuts began to take effect in December, as Oakland faced a massive deficit created by years of overspending and the indefinite delay of the sale of its 50% stake in the Oakland Coliseum.

The controversial cuts got the go-ahead when the City Council approved a contingency plan in then-Mayor Sheng Thao’s July budget proposal, which relied on one-time funds from the sale of the Coliseum to prevent overspending. The contingency was triggered in September after the Coliseum’s buyers, the African American Sports and Entertainment Group, missed payments originally scheduled for September and November.

More recently, the deal has been in limbo as AASEG awaits the Alameda County Board of Supervisors’ approval on its purchase of the other 50% of the site from the A’s.

Seth Olyer, the president of the firefighters union, said he believes the Board of Supervisors will sign that deal by the end of the month, but until the fire stations are restored, he said Oaklanders will be put at risk.

“A fire on top of your stove [can] become your entire kitchen on fire, which then becomes the entire half of the house on fire,” he said. Fires double every 30 to 60 seconds, he said, and with the shuttered stations, Olyer expects response times to increase from four minutes, to closer to eight or 10 in some places.

“Now the entire house is on fire. Now, your neighbor’s house is on fire. That’s, unfortunately, how things work when we’re not there quickly to make a difference,” he continued.

In addition to the closures of fire stations 25 and 28 and the continued closure of Station 10, which was already undergoing repairs, the city is limiting police overtime and spending. Four more fire stations could close as soon as early February.

While the public safety cuts are not subject to council approval, it’s possible that the new council will look to work with the budget office to prevent further cuts and restore services.

Three new council members were sworn into office Monday, including Zac Unger, who had served as the leader of the fire union until he was inaugurated. Unger said public safety would be his top priority in office.

“There is no safe way to close seven firehouses as has been proposed … for our firefighters or for the citizens of Oakland,” he said outside City Hall ahead of his swearing-in. “I will be looking under every couch cushion and figuring out ways that we can keep firehouses open because there is nothing more important than making sure our citizens and our firefighters are safe.”

Rebecca Kaplan, who served as the council’s at-large member until this year, was also selected Monday to fill the District 2 seat vacated by Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas, who was elected to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors. Voters in the district, which includes Chinatown and the neighborhoods around Lake Merritt, will select a council member in April when they also vote for a new mayor after Thao’s recall.

Until then, Kevin Jenkins, who was chosen by the council as the new president, will assume the role of interim mayor, and Noel Gallo, who was reelected as the council president pro tempore, will act as council president.