Oakland Tribune: Fremont's Northgate fire station still closed

FREMONT -- The fire station in the Northgate neighborhood has been closed for the past five days because of budget cuts, and there is no indication whether or not it will reopen before Monday, fire officials said.

Station No. 8 on Darwin Drive a quarter-mile from the Ranch 99 Market on Fremont Boulevard has been closed since 8 a.m. Monday. Based on the rotating weekly closure plan instituted by Fire Chief Willie McDonald earlier this month, Station No. 9 on Stevenson Place near Mission Boulevard will be subject to closures beginning Monday.

Under the plan, temporary station closures, or "brownouts," are not scheduled in advance but will occur whenever three out of the department's total number of firefighters normally scheduled to work are sick, on injury leave or on vacation.

It being both the flu and holiday season, station closures "have started to spike" due to firefighter absences, Firefighters Union President Ron McCormick said. McDonald could not be reached for comment, and McCormick was unsure if the Northgate station would reopen today or Sunday.

The rotating closures of four of the fire department's 10 stations have evoked a mixed bag of reactions from residents -- from complacency to growing fear.

"It makes me feel unsafe," said Vijay Patel, who for the past 12 years has lived in the Ardenwood neighborhood, served by the first station to experience a closure. "If something happens, it will take longer for them to respond. . . . I know this is a result of budget cuts, but they need to get their priorities straight."

Others, like Bart Gottshall, said they don't feel endangered by the service reductions. The four-year Northgate neighborhood resident said he believed the fire department has enough resources and coverage to get to an emergency in time.

McDonald instituted the rotating closures earlier this month in an effort to avert firefighter layoffs and the permanent closure of a second station in February. The plan is expected to save the department $400,000 -- a significant chunk of the $3 million in cuts McDonald must implement by the end of June to help the city eliminate a $22 million deficit.

Closing stations when firefighters are absent reduces overtime costs, said McDonald, whose department spent $1.8 million on overtime during the 2002-2003 fiscal year.

Station No. 9 on Stevenson Place, near the Fremont Park golf course, could be subject to a closure beginning Monday. It will be followed by Station No. 10 on Deep Creek Road in the Ardenwood neighborhood the week of Jan. 5, and Station No. 7 on South Grimmer Boulevard off Auto Mall Parkway the week of Jan. 12.

Both were hit by brownouts earlier this month.

Firefighters are opposed to the closures and have been participating in informational pickets in front of closed fire stations, McCormick said.

"They are totally against it. They don't support it, because they know the impacts," McCormick said Friday. "It's like playing Russian roulette. You're just hoping that nothing happens."

During a closure, an adjacent fire company will provide emergency services to the uncovered district, McDonald said. Still, he conceded that response times could be increased by as much as five minutes.

McCormick said he is particularly concerned with the two North Fremont stations. Both are part of the rotation and are the only Fremont stations north of the Union Pacific Railroad line that passes through Centerville.

That means in a major emergency, a passing train could delay other supporting engine companies from responding, he said.

What many people still do not understand is that the closures are a community-wide issue, McCormick said.

"The community needs to get involved, because we can only say so much," he said. "We're trying to get the message out, but it really comes down to the community understanding what these cuts mean."

It's clear, however, that McCormick and others on the picket lines still have a long way to go.

One North Fremont resident, who asked that her name not be used, said she's not sure what to make of the closures.

"I've taken the wait-and-see attitude," she said while shopping at the Albertsons grocery store on Fremont Boulevard in Northgate. "I don't think there's anything I can really do about it."

Staff writer Scott Wong covers the city of Fremont for The Argus. He can be reached at (510) 353-7002 or swong@angnewspapers.com .