Fire district buys another home as part of station modernization effort

BY EMILY MIBACH
Daily Post Staff Writer

The Menlo Park Fire Protection District announced Friday (March 2) that it has bought a home behind Fire Station Number 4 in unincorporated west Menlo Park for $3.2 million, part of a push to expand or revamp its fire stations.

In the past nine months, the district has spent $14.4 million to acquire property.

The land bought at 2110 Valparaiso Ave. in West Menlo Park, just behind Station 4 at 3322 Alameda de las Pulgas, will allow the station, once it is rebuilt, to have a drive-through garage for its trucks. Right now, trucks block
traffic on Alameda when they back into the firehouse. After the rebuild, trucks will be able to drive into the garage from the back and exit from the front.

Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman estimates that Station 4 may not be rebuilt for another 10 years, but this purchase was “strategic,” because it took about that long for the two stations the district has recently rehabbed to be completed.

Fire Station 6 at 700 Oak Grove Ave. in Menlo Park is currently being rebuilt, and Fire Station 2 at 2290 University Ave. in East Palo Alto was completed in 2016. Schapelhouman said the district bought property behind Station 2 in 2006 and 2008, and also bought property behind Station 6 in 2008. Station 2 was finished in 2016 and cost the district $7.6 million and 6 is still under construction and cost $7 million.

The district is also in the early stages of planning for Station 1 at 300 Middlefield Road in Menlo Park to be rebuilt. Once Station 1 is redone, Station 4 will be reconstructed.

Station 4 is 69 years old and is a wood building that lacks fire sprinklers. It lacks modern plumbing and wiring.

Station 4 serves Atherton, Menlo Park and unincorporated areas such as west Menlo Park, the Sequoia Tract and Stanford Weekend Acres. The district covers Menlo Park, Atherton, East Palo Alto, west Menlo Park and North Fair Oaks.