LA Fire Chief Warned Budget Cuts Would Hurt in a Disaster. Oakland Has Heard Similar

Weeks before the devastating fires ravaging Los Angeles, the city’s fire chief warned that funding cuts would hurt the department’s wildfire response. It’s a message that echoes in Oakland, where the Fire Department is facing massive budget reductions — and some city leaders are hoping the disaster in L.A. will be a wake-up call.

After the Palisades and Eaton fires erupted Tuesday, overwhelming firefighters and burning thousands of homes, reports of fire budget cuts flooded online discourse.

In July, Los Angeles cut $17.6 million from the Fire Department, according to records from the city controller’s office. Mayor Karen Bass referred to the elimination of some vacant positions as a “reset” and said she didn’t believe it affected the Fire Department’s response this week, and L.A. Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s office noted that a union contract passed in November belatedly boosted the budget, going to wage increases.

However, as recently as December, Los Angeles Fire Chief Kristin Crowley warned in a memo to the board of fire commissioners that the cuts would “limit the Department’s capacity to prepare for, train for, and respond to large-scale emergencies, including wildfires.” The reductions included $7 million for overtime training hours, she said, and funding for 61 civilian positions.

In Oakland, where many are familiar with the devastation that fire can wreak in densely populated hills, severe budget cuts forced the closure of two fire stations this week, in addition to one already closed for repairs. Four more could shutter next month.

Fire officials in the city say the cuts would decimate Oakland’s ability to protect itself from future blazes.

“Closing four more firehouses would be the end of fire protection as we know it in Oakland,” said Councilmember Zac Unger, who worked as a city firefighter until retiring from the role 10 days ago to take his council seat. “There is no way to close seven firehouses and not have devastating impacts on both the citizens and on firefighter safety.”

Unger, along with Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan, said the City Council was working to restore fire services. Councilmember Janani Ramachandran, whose district includes one of the shuttered fire stations, said officials hoped to keep the closures “as brief as possible.”

Still, the final decision isn’t the council’s to make. When it approved then-Mayor Sheng Thao’s budget in July, the council gave budget administrator Bradley Johnson permission to select from a menu of cuts under a contingency plan triggered in December by the stalled sale of Oakland’s stake in the Coliseum. Johnson moved forward with $5.5 million in fire cuts. The second phase, expected to save $7 million more, could begin in February, and station closures could last the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends in June.

The stations shuttered Monday are two of the closest to the hills, where many residents are still terrified by memories of the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm. The Tunnel Fire, as it was officially known, was one of the most destructive in California’s history. After a small fire broke out on private land, 70 mph winds caused flames to rip through the hills, burning houses and cars. More than 4,500 firefighters from across Northern California responded to the fire, which destroyed nearly 3,500 homes and killed 25 people.

Seth Olyer, president of the Oakland firefighters union, had a dire message this week for residents around shuttered Fire Stations 25 and 28, near Joaquin Miller Park and the Lake Chabot golf course.

“Chabot Park, Sequoia, Noland Park, Joaquin Miller, Oakmoor, Skyline, Grass Valley, Woodminster, Lincoln Highlands and Crestmont — hear this clearly: if you live in any of those neighborhoods, be aware that you’ll be waiting a very long time for help,” Olyer said Monday on the steps of City Hall.

“You will not quickly have firefighter paramedics to help you or your family, and what could have been a small blaze or a small fire near your house will become a conflagration, leaving tragedy in its wake,” he continued.

Olyer said that if all of the cuts go through, closing nearly 30% of the city’s 28 stations, firefighters wouldn’t be able to respond to a fire like October’s Keller Fire as effectively as they did.

“Engines 25 and 28 were amongst the first engines on scene on the Keller Fire,” he told KQED. “The boots on the ground right away made the difference between houses on Campus Drive becoming foundations only, kind of like all this stuff happening down in L.A. The sooner you get resources there, the better the outcome is across the board.”

Some of the calls that engines from Station 28 answer are almost to the end of the county. If farther stations have to respond to emergencies in its zone, response times could climb, Olyer said — from the usual four minutes up to 15 in some cases.

Fire crews also have expertise in the topography in their districts, an important factor when navigating the windy, narrow roads of the Oakland Hills. Some of the stations closest to the Oakland Hills also have slightly shorter fire trucks to move through the neighborhood more easily.

“Now you have an engine that’s made for driving around on International Boulevard or Telegraph or something trying to wind its way up these hill areas,” Olyer said. “It’s very difficult to maneuver just on a good day, even the smaller engines.”