BY BRADEN CARTWRIGHT
Daily Post Staff Writer
After seeing the destruction from the fires in Los Angeles, residents are clamoring for the city of Palo Alto to restore a fire engine to the station at Mitchell Park, where surrounding homes are made of wood and hundreds of new apartments are planned.
“The danger is real … South Palo Alto deserves the same protection as other neighborhoods even though we are not as rich or powerful,” resident Stephen Rock said in an email to council.
“With 12 schools within a five-block radius of Station 4, the lack of immediate fire protection puts thousands of children at risk daily … The city’s $1.2 billion budget should prioritize public safety,” resident Christian Bailey said in another email.
Resident CeCi Kettendorf, who lives down the street on Grove Avenue, started an online petition on Sunday that had 160 signatures last night.
Kettendorf said she believes responses have been delayed because the nearest engine is in Barron Park, on the other side of the Caltrain tracks.
“Residents feel betrayed at this end of town that our Fire Station 4 has not housed a fire truck for at least two years, leaving us incredibly vulnerable. No notice was given to us, breeding immense distrust,” Kettendorf said in an email to the city on Saturday. Firefighters took 15 minutes to respond to an alarm pulled by a kid at the Mitchell Park Library even though the station is on the same block, according to a newsletter yesterday from Palo Altans for Sensible Zoning.
City Manager Ed Shikada announced to council on Monday that he is working on a proposal to add staffing as part of the mid-year budget review on Feb. 24.
With council approval, an “interim service enhancement” could happen in 30 to 60 days, city spokeswoman Meghan Horrigan-Taylor said in an email yesterday. Today (Feb. 5), the city announced it will have one more firefighter staffed at Station 4.
Reductions over 10 years
The fire department has reduced resources over the last decade in response to a new contract with Stanford and revenue loss during Covid, Chief Geo Blackshire told council’s Finance Committee on Nov. 19.
The city’s previous contract with Stanford had been in place since the 1970s and covered 30% of the city’s expenses.
But Stanford and the city renegotiated the contract in 2018 — a “gory negotiation” that went to mediation and ended with Stanford covering 19% of the city’s expenses, Councilman Pat Burt said at the Finance Committee meeting.
The city has five engines at six stations and three roving ambulances at all times, Blackshire said.
The engine was removed from Mitchell Park in July 2020 as part of pandemic-related budget cuts, Blackshire said.
The station at Mitchell Park is getting rebuilt, and the goal is to have an engine when it reopens in March 2026, Blackshire said.
Ambulances will be stationed at the Cubberley Community Center during the rebuild.
New positions
Council will consider adding 10 firefighter positions or creating a new position for 25 paramedics who don’t go through a fire academy.
Adding firefighters would cost $3.3 million per year. They have more trainings, higher pensions and greater salaries than paramedics would, Finance Director Lauren Lai said.
Adding civilian paramedics would require negotiations with the union but would save money in the long run, Lai said.
Paramedics make about 30% less and have a shorter hiring timeline, Lai said. They’d have the same medical training but wouldn’t fight fires or respond to hazardous materials, Blackshire said.
The city would still send a fire engine to be the first on scene, Blackshire told the Finance Committee.
“It goes without saying that the community would be better served with a fire engine in every station,” said Blackshire, who is retiring at the end of the year.
Other station’s story
The College Terrace neighborhood was also without a fire engine until an attic caught on fire, and a neighbor helped an elderly person evacuate before trucks arrived, resident Margaret Heath told council in June.
“Minutes and seconds can make all the difference as to how serious a fire becomes, especially in older homes without sprinkler systems,” Heath said.
Council added three full-time firefighter positions for the station on Hanover Street last summer.
Be the first to comment