Problem-Plagued Fire Station Finally Opens

With plenty of backup fire engines standing by, authorities Friday finally extinguished the embers of an eight-year dispute over a new fire station in West Hollywood.

City and county leaders peacefully marked the completion of Station 7--a trouble-plagued, $6-million project that led West Hollywood last year to threaten an end to its contract with the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

“It’s a day I never thought we’d see. But we’re here,” county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky told a crowd of firefighters and local residents at the new station. “I think the city of West Hollywood has made a wise decision to contract with us.”

Yaroslavsky helped broker the truce between the city and the Fire Department.

Angry city leaders charged last March that the partially built firehouse was years behind schedule, millions of dollars over budget and so poorly designed that firetrucks would be unable to make a right turn out of its driveway.

They announced plans to sue the county for the return of $2 million they had allocated seven years earlier for construction. They also initiated steps to drop county Fire Department service and hire firefighters from neighboring Beverly Hills or Los Angeles to protect their 2-square-mile city.

County fire officials responded at the time by suggesting that they might welcome West Hollywood’s departure. Some said persnickety city leaders caused the design problems by demanding a fancy, artsy-looking station.

The five-level, redwood-and-glass structure had so many nooks and crannies and elevated windows that professional window-washers would have to be employed to clean them, fire officials said. Maybe “Beverly Hills can bear that expense,” said county Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman.

Firefighters eventually moved into the station at 864 N. San Vicente Blvd. in mid-2000. But they found that it had been built on a 45-degree angle, so firetrucks had to make an awkward U-turn in the intersection to head east.

The floor of the fire engine parking bay was tilted, meaning that firefighters had to put safety blocks beneath trucks’ wheels while they were in the station. They complained that the floor wasn’t flat because of city-mandated underground parking beneath it for their personal cars.

In their living quarters, firefighters discovered that some work desks were only 3 inches deep. Several of the station’s restrooms were so tiny that users had to straddle the toilets to shut the doors.

But all of that was forgotten Friday as the two sides joined for ceremonial ribbon and cake cuttings.

Fire officials said a redesigned doorway allows right-hand turns by fire engines now. And modifications to the living quarters are continuing.

“It’s still a bit of a work in process,” said Station 7 Capt. Mark Viles.

Yaroslavsky--who helped find $600,000 used to finish the station--sat between Mayor Jeff Prang and Chief Freeman.

Freeman described the station as “an artistic statement for the city.”

Prang said the city has dropped its lawsuit plans and the idea of contracting elsewhere for fire protection. He pronounced himself “grateful that you’re here serving our city.”

Friday’s opening ended with the city’s presentation of a plaque for a steel sculpture above the firehouse entrance. Its name: “Where Fire Meets Water.”