Sacramento Fire Station Partially Closed Due To Low Staffing Levels

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Sacramento's busiest fire station was partially closed on Friday.

Fire officials say it's all because of inadequate staffing levels.

Station 6 in Oak Park had about half as many fire personnel as it usually does on any normal day.

"We usually have 10 personnel here at Station 6 every day, today there are six," said Chris Harvey, a spokesman for the Sacramento Fire Department.

"Wow, that's crazy," said one man who lives right across from the fire station.

He says hearing about Friday's cut back in staffing puts him on edge.

"Nothing has happened before, but now that I don't have anything to help me I feel like if something happens anything could happen," he added.

But station six can respond in a limited was -- the station still has a working ambulance and fire truck -- but the fire engine isn't operating.

Harvey says "the fire engine is closed so if there is a fire in this area, an engine from another neighboring station has to come out."

Harvey adds that could slow down the response time if there is a fire.

A recent report by a consultant hired by the Sacramento Fire Department shows none of the departments have met the national goal of a four-minute response time.

The report recommends to the city to add three additional ambulances and four new fire stations to help improve response times.

Earlier this week the city manager told CBS 13 Sacramento is considering adding ambulances with single-role paramedics to cut down costs and make more financial resources available to the fire department.

The firefighters' union opposes that.

The union issued a statement Friday saying, "We want to inform the public of the overall lack of staffing the department has been suffering for years...we have been operating with 20 year old staffing levels."

Fire station six runs over 6,000 calls a year.

According to Harvey, the department is 60 positions short and right now the positions are being filled with firefighters working overtime.

The department hopes to hire more firefighters over the coming months, after an entry-level and a lateral academy wrap up.