Two Oakland fire stations will temporarily close amid city's budget shortfall

OAKLAND, Calif. - Two fire stations in Oakland will close for six months beginning Monday at 6 a.m. as the city faces a severe budget deficit.

Fire stations 25 and 28, located on Butters Drive and Grass Valley Road, respectively, are being closed as part of the Oakland City Council's plan to balance the city's distressed budget. 

The council's budget plan was accepted on Dec. 18 and includes cuts to police, fire and cultural arts programs. The city is facing a nearly $130 million deficit. The fire station closures are expected to save about $5.5 million. 

In December, firefighters said the cuts could be life-threatening and people calling for help could end up waiting longer for help.

Oakland Fire Chief Damon Covington spoke Friday afternoon, saying there's a great amount of impact with stations closing, but his department's job is to lessen the impact to the public. 

"While it will definitely alter our delivery model, we will still show up when you call 9-1-1," the chief said.

He said if this had happened in July, they would have looked at other stations with fire conditions.

"We felt like because of the time of the year, you can see it's really foggy today, we're not directly in wildland season," he said.

Since 2022, another fire station in the Grand Lake neighborhood has been closed for renovation.

"Fortunately, these stations are not our busiest stations," the chief said of Stations 25 and 28.

Seth Olyer, vice president of the International Association of Firefighters Local 55, joined KTVU Friday morning to discuss the closures. 

"The folks in city management decided that since it's not technically fire season, now is a good time to have residents above Highway 13 wait a little longer. And the reality is that there is no good fire station to close," he said. 

Olyer said it really impacts the response times. 

In early February, the city plans to close an additional four stations which would bring the total number of closed stations to seven. 

That would slow responses to specific areas as well as in multiple-alarm fires.

The very reason fire stations are spread out protect not only their own areas of responsibility but to aid and assist other stations that cannot or don't have enough staff and equipment to respond adequately.

The station closures would force firefighters to work at different fire stations. 

The station closures are one part of the city's plan to address the budget shortfall. 

The two-part plan will also include up to 91 job cuts at the end of January, as well as cuts to cultural arts and affairs.

"We've been here before with the browning out of stations and there is certainly a temporary solution that is being explored at this point in time with the goal of opening up our stations very early in the fiscal year," said Jestin Johnson, Oakland city administrator.

That's why it's critical that come Tuesday, the Alameda Board of Supervisors vote on completing the Oakland Coliseum complex sale.

To see the city's 2024-2025 budget report in full, click here.