Station 46 is on Fire

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Published April 9th, 2014

Station 46 is on Fire

By Nick Marnell

Although the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District bypassed Lafayette in the deployment of additional firefighters made possible by the receipt of federal grant money, the city may soon benefit from the approval of proposed fire station 46 on the Orinda-Lafayette border.

"Rebuilding an organization is as emotional as taking it down," said ConFire chief Jeff Carman as he outlined his staffing plans at the April 1 district board meeting. "We have analyzed our performance data and we have not seen any indication that adding a second resource to the existing Lafayette stations will improve the response times."

He suggested that the addition of a two-person squad to station 1 in downtown Walnut Creek will provide backup service to Lafayette, but he maintains that the best thing for Lafayette is to get station 46 open. Carman said he is optimistic that the joint venture between ConFire and the Moraga-Orinda Fire District will happen.

MOFD chief Stephen Healy plans to address his board soon with the details of an agreement for the jointly operated station, and Carman said he expects to present the deal to the Board of Supervisors after that. Healy confirmed that both parties are close to a tentative agreement.

City and county officials also sound more upbeat about the consolidated fire station than they did a year ago.

"I hope that ConFire's ability to add more personnel in areas where service has been reduced is part of a balanced approach to restore service throughout the district, which should include taking the final steps to expedite the building and staffing of station 46," said Lafayette City Council member Brandt Andersson, who co-chairs the city's Emergency Services Task Force.

District 2 Supervisor Candace Andersen expressed a similar sense of urgency. "Carman is actively working on station 46 and believes we're getting close to a deal. We're hopeful that he will be coming forward to the Board of Supervisors soon," she said.

In 1999, then MOFD chief Jim Johnston recommended that "it would be rational and logical to proceed with the construction of a single fire station along El Nido Road in replacement of fire station 43 in the MOFD and fire station 16 in ConFire." After 15 years, his idea may finally be making it out of committee.



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