Lafayette fire Station 16 to reopen after nearly six-year closure

Six years after closing amid budgetary struggles, Fire Station No. 16 in Lafayette is set to reopen this spring, and Fire Engine 16 and its crew have already moved back — sort of.

The Contra Costa County Fire Protection District will reopen its Station 16 about six years after it and four other district stations were closed in 2013 during lean financial times, largely the result of diminished property tax revenues (a temporary $75 parcel tax to fund the fire district was rejected by voters in 2012).

The newly refurbished station, where the old station was, is on Los Arabis Drive north of Highway 24 off Happy Valley Road.

That heavily wooded area is densely developed with single-family homes on often narrow and/or winding streets, and residents there in the past have said having a fire station nearby is crucial for safety. Until the new station opens, the Station 16 crew is working out of the district’s Station 15, on the east end of Lafayette near the Lafayette Park Hotel and Spa.

The CCCFPD’s West Leland Road Station 87 in Pittsburg, which also closed in 2013 because of budget shortfalls, reopened in January 2017. Rehabilitation of the fire district’s Station 19 off Bear Creek Road north of Orinda finished in March, spokesman Steve Hill said Sunday.