By Madison Smalstig
The Press Democrat
SANTA ROSA, Calif. — Two engines sat inside Santa Rosa Fire Station 1 on a recent Wednesday. Around them, a new wall framed extra sleeping quarters, and computers and work chairs stuffed office spaces.
Space has grown tight at the Sonoma Avenue headquarters — a good problem to have, fire officials say. For the first time since 2007, the department has added a new fire engine and permanent crew.
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On Oct. 5, Engine 9 went into service, marking the culmination of what Fire Chief Scott Westrope called a 20-year dream finally realized through Measure H, the countywide half-cent sales tax voters approved last year to enhance fire protection services.
“Part of me didn’t believe it was actually happening and the other didn’t want to jinx it,” Westrope wrote in an email to staff the day after the engine’s rollout.
The milestone comes as Santa Rosa Fire navigates an uncertain financial outlook.
City leaders are facing a multiyear, multimillion-dollar deficit in the general fund that pays most department salaries and have warned that more cuts — potentially including public safety — could lie ahead.
Engine 9 is based at Station 1 for now, helping cover emergencies in central and southeast Santa Rosa, areas that have seen hundreds of new homes in recent years. Along with the new crew, the department added three battalion chiefs to oversee day-to-day staffing and made permanent two fire inspector positions.
Department leaders say the new resources are critical to meet surging demand. Santa Rosa Fire now responds to nearly 60% more calls than in 2007.
“Voters in the community entrusted the fire service with the sales tax measure,” Westrope said. “They understood the need to expand fire services in Sonoma County … and so we take that investment very seriously.”
Mayor Mark Stapp called the expansion a direct reflection of community priorities.
“If you’ve been living in Sonoma County over the past decade you are well aware of the value of the services that our fire services provide, including Santa Rosa,” he said. “With these new resources, we’ll be able to provide a higher level of service.”
Station 1 is one of Santa Rosa’s busiest — and suddenly, its most crowded. Eleven firefighters now sleep there, with just two bathrooms between them. Three captains share an office meant for two. Still, the mood is upbeat.
“We’re busting at the seams but we’ll make it work,” said Capt. Stephan Dalporto, who directs the city’s firefighters union. “If it’s for the right reason, we’ll deal with the uncomfortableness.”
Firefighters lined up for the chance to join Engine 9’s new team. The crew’s arrival not only eases the workload but could improve response times and reduce burnout.
“The call volume in Santa Rosa has always been taxing on the members,” Dalporto said. “This is going to help alleviate a little of that.”
The idea of expanding service to southeast Santa Rosa has been around for decades.
In 1998, the department was gifted land on Franz Kafka Avenue for a future station intended to serve growing neighborhoods east of Petaluma Hill Road, along the base of Taylor Mountain. The site bore a hopeful sign for years: “Future fire station site. To better serve our community.”
Today, that lot remains vacant, now surrounded by apartment complexes and single-family homes.
Station 1 crews have covered the area, but fire officials said a permanent station is needed to better serve the South Park neighborhood, Santa Rosa Avenue’s commercial corridor and the residential stretch along Petaluma Hill Road.
The Franz Kafka parcel was recently deemed unsuitable, and the city agreed last year to sell it. The department is now scouting new sites, ideally along Santa Rosa Avenue between Court Street and Elsa Drive.
“My preference would be to take an existing commercial building and retrofit it to a fire station,” Westrope said, adding it would be cheaper and faster than building a new space. “But we’re actually exploring both at the same time.”
Measure H funds will help pay for that future station.
“The exciting stuff will happen when we get the station built,” Dalporto said. “Then our residents down on Santa Rosa Avenue will have the coverage they deserve.”
New recruits, new leadership
Even as the department expands, it’s also rebuilding.
Earlier this month, seven recruits began training at the department’s College Avenue facility — the third academy class this year. During a recent drill, they practiced folding hoses in crisp lines and checking couplings for kinks and leaks.
The recruits aren’t directly funded by Measure H, Westrope noted, but they’re part of the department’s broader expansion made possible by the new revenue stream.
That funding also helped add three battalion chiefs, including the first woman to hold the rank in Santa Rosa. Each shift now has two chiefs, a change Battalion Chief Paul Ricci called a “quantum leap” in service delivery. The chiefs will go from supervising an entire city of firefighters — about 35 to 40 per shift — to each covering half.
“It opens up that opportunity for us to basically split the city in half,” Ricci said. “(We) really connect with our employees, make sure that they’re well-trained, be involved in their training and (provide) more supervision on the line.”
The extra leadership also strengthens large-scale fire response. One battalion chief can now focus entirely on managing the scene while another ensures the rest of the city remains covered.
Two new permanent fire inspectors are also joining the ranks to enforce Santa Rosa’s updated vegetation management ordinance aimed at curbing wildfire risk.
Measure H: a countywide boost
The rollout of Engine 9 marks the first tangible result of Measure H funding for Santa Rosa.
The first funds were distributed earlier this year, split among 29 fire agencies serving both incorporated and unincorporated areas of Sonoma County. Santa Rosa is estimated to receive about 14.4% of the annual revenue.
The half-cent sales tax, approved in March 2024, aims to modernize regional fire services by hiring about 200 new firefighters, upgrading or building 30 stations, and improving wildfire prevention.
The measure succeeded four years after a prior attempt failed and seven years after the 2017 wildfires devastated the region, underscoring the need for more robust fire protection.
For Santa Rosa, Measure H has meant expanding daily staffing for the first time in 18 years. The department handled roughly 18,000 calls in 2007; last year, it logged around 30,000. Handling more calls with the same staffing levels, the department has fallen short of its goal to arrive on scene within five minutes 90% of the time.
Internal studies have long shown Santa Rosa needs three additional stations and dozens more staff to meet national standards — growth that’s only now becoming financially feasible.
Deploying the new engine, battalion chiefs and inspectors costs about $4.9 million annually, Westrope said, covered through a 10-year spending plan developed with city administrators.
Looking ahead, he hopes to add a countywide heavy rescue team equipped for building collapses and high-rise rescues — a first for Sonoma County — possibly as soon as next fiscal year.
Budget uncertainty ahead
But as Santa Rosa Fire grows, it faces a familiar threat: budget instability.
Santa Rosa fire officials and city administrators initially proposed eliminating one of 10 fire engines or one of two ladder truck companies to reach targeted reductions of 8% in the 2025-26 fiscal year.
Public pushback was fierce. Dozens of firefighters and residents packed council chambers to plead with officials not to reduce staffing, warning it would slow response times and endanger lives. The positions were ultimately spared, but at a cost: the department eliminated a deputy fire chief and two vacant firefighter slots instead.
Budget officials are expected to deliver a financial update Oct. 21, though no new cuts will be discussed. Westrope said it’s too early to know what might happen next.
“I think the community made it very clear, the labor group made it very clear and I think I made it clear that service reduction is not what we need in the fire service,” he said.
He said he would continue advocating to preserve positions while finding other ways to reduce costs and boost revenue.
Measure H dollars can’t replace or backfill general fund positions, a key limitation in the city’s fiscal strategy. Still, Mayor Stapp said public safety will remain a priority in upcoming budget talks.
For now, firefighters are focused on what’s here — a long-awaited expansion finally taking shape.
“The important thing,” Dalporto said, “is just having all the engines and trucks and squads and battalions that we have in service. Because even with everything we have right now, we’re still below standards for what we need.”
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