A $130 million City of Oakland deficit forced the closure of three fire stations, which had residents rightfully scared. But the City Council found the money, and now all three are officially reopened.
As the City of Oakland was looking down the barrel of a $130 million budget deficit in December 2024, Oakland's City Council made the difficult (and extremely controversial) decision to close three fire stations. Or rather, they said they were temporarily closing two fire stations, and leaving a third that was closed for repairs since 2022 to just continue and sit there closed.
As you would imagine, Oakland firefighters were apoplectic over this decision, particularly because the decision was made in January 2025, right as the Los Angeles wildfires were decimating that city, and three months after the Keller Fire threatened the Oakland Hills and destroyed several homes.
The Oakland City Council sure got some blowback over this, so they found the money to have those fire stations reopened in March, and ultimately passed a budget that kept emergency services intact in June. All of that has finally trickled down and fallen into place, as KPIX reports that all three of those closed fire stations have now reopened.
They’ve actually all reopened slowly over the course of four months. Stations 25 and 28, which had both been operable but were shut down by the budget cuts, are both in the Oakland Hills. So that's a relief to those who were alarmed by the Keller Fire. The third of these, Station 10 in Grand Lake, has completed its repairs and is back in operation.
"Really, since the 90s there has been a reduction in firehouses by one to two companies for every year," Oakland Fire Department spokesperson Michael Hunt told KPIX. Of the reopenings, he said, "It's a huge boost morale-wise and just safety for the community."
As Oaklandside notes, these station reopenings mean that all 25 Oakland fire stations are now open again. That’s obviously a big win for new Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee. Though to Lee, the reopening of Grand Lake’s Fire Station 10 — the oldest fire station in Oakland — is also personal for her. Her mother used to live down the street from that station, in her later years while suffering from lung disease.
As Lee told firefighters at one of the station’s reopening ceremonies, according to Oaklandside, “She lived longer because of you and because of your response time, and because of the type of emergency care that this fire station provided.”
Image: Oakland Firefighters Local 55 via Facebook
