City Of Sacramento Ends Fire Station "Brownouts"

Eight stations have been on brownout status for four years, but all are fully staffed starting Wednesday.

Lloyd Ogan is the acting chief of the Sacramento Fire Department.  He says the rotating closures increased the amount of time it took for firefighters and medics to respond to calls for help. 

"In the effected districts, we had an average of about one minute and 32 seconds additional response time," says Ogan.

Ogan says longer response times contribute to bigger fires.

"Every minute a fire burns, it doubles in size when we can't engage on it," he says.

The acting chief says delays in response time sometimes between the difference between life and death.

"On a medical aid call, for every minute we go past the six minute mark, we have a significant reduction -- as much as 30-percent reduction -- in the ability to affect cardiac health on a cardiac incident," he says.

The city is using $8.5 million in sales tax revenue approved by voters to restore fire department staffing to pre-recession levels.

Eight stations will have open houses Saturday to celebrate a return to full-time status.

• Station 2: 1229 I Street
• Station 5: 731 Broadway
• Station 6: 3301 MLK Jr. Blvd.
• Station 7: 6500 Wyndham Dr.
• Station 10: 5642 66th Street
• Station 16: 7363 24th Street
• Station 17: 1311 Bell Avenue
• Station 30: 1901 Club Ctr Dr. 

Twenty seven fire department positions are being filled this year with Measure U sales tax revenue.

Voters approved Measure U last fall.  The City expects to collect about $27 million dollars in new revenues this year.  About a third of the money has been set aside to restore fire department services to pre-recession levels.