You might say Oakland firefighters have their hair on fire over the recent closures of two city fire stations, with four more closures potentially looming, as response times have more than doubled, and the risk of SoCal-style wildfire outbreaks has ballooned.

Today’s Chronicle has an article wherein the reporter did a ride-along with one of the 19 Oakland firefighters who went to Los Angeles last month when the series of devastating wildfires took the lives of 29 people and destroyed 16,000 structures. And it's no secret why the Chronicle was invited on the ride-along.

The Oakland City Council recently approved the temporary closure of two fire stations in the city to deal with Oakland’s $130 million budget deficit. And as the Chronicle reports from their ride-along, because the geography of Oakland is not dissimilar to the areas of LA that burned, firefighters are worried the station closures could exacerbate a Los Angeles-type wildfire situation in Oakland.

Oakland has 26 fire stations total. And as KTVU explained when the two stations were closed four weeks ago, these two East Oakland closures were considered “brownouts,” because they were billed as temporary closures and the stations would supposedly reopen in the new fiscal year in June.

But it’s really three closures, as West Oakland's Station 10 had already been closed for repairs, and its reopening is now delayed because of the budget cuts. Plus, Oakland City Council is considering the temporary closures of four more stations next month, though they have not named these stations yet.

But according to the Chronicle, since those January 6 closures, the department’s response times are “double or triple their usual standard of four minutes.” (Four minutes is the general industry goal for fire department response times.)

This terrifies many who remember the 1991 Oakland firestorm that killed 25 people and injured 125 more. And everyone remembers this past October’s Keller Fire that quickly grew to 13 acres and forced the evacuation of 43 homes.  

“If that same fire happened today in the same spot and under the same conditions, it would probably destroy a lot more homes and maybe even result in some fatalities,” Oakland Firefighters Union president Seth Olyer told the Chronicle. “That’s what is scary: By closing fire stations, the city is slowing down our response times. And given that fires double in size every minute, every single second matters.”

Oakland presents a uniquely challenging landscape for firefighters, with steep streets, acres of grassy vegetated areas, and of course the city’s environment of encampments, public dumping, and abandoned cars.

“Watching coverage of the LA fires, it was not hard to imagine that happening here,” Jill Yegian, resident of Joaquin Miller Park region next to one of the closed stations, said to the Chronicle. “Not only is the landscape similar here to those parts of LA that were devastated, but, like LA, our city is cutting our fire department’s resources.”

It’s true that 70% of Oakland Fire Department calls are for non-fire reasons — after all, they have a few shootings here and there in Oakland. But while this is not considered wildfire season, you saw what happened in LA last month. And if as many as seven stations clore temporarily, there's no guarantee these will be reopen when fire risk escalates in the spring and summer.

And there's no telling the consequences of what could happen if they don't reopen.

Related: Oakland, Facing a Budget Crisis, Will Temporarily Close Two Fire Stations [SFist]

Image: City of Oakland