Alameda County Fire Department plans to replace Fire Station 22 in San Lorenzo, a facility that has served the community since before 1940.
The existing Station 22 is a modest structure by modern firehouse standards. According to the Alameda County Fire Department, the building was constructed before 1940, received an addition in 1963, and now measures just 3,967 square feet. It houses one Type I Engine company and responds to downtown, residential, and business areas of San Lorenzo. The department doesn’t even own the building outright — it leases the station from the San Lorenzo Homeowners Association.
Station 22 began as the firehouse for the San Lorenzo Village Fire Department, which was consolidated into the Eden Consolidated Fire Protection District in 1976. A county environmental review says the station now responds to about 192 emergency calls a month, with average response times of roughly four minutes. The review also identifies accessibility, safety and facility needs as reasons the existing building no longer meets the department’s needs. The county’s project review describes both the station’s history and its current workload.
A State-of-the-Art Replacement Nearby
The fire department’s own programming and feasibility study determined that Station 22 requires replacement, the same source notes. The planned new facility will sit on an empty paved lot roughly three blocks from the current site, rather than being rebuilt in place…