The Palo Alto fire department

Palo Alto runs its own fire department rather than contracting with a county agency. That department now spends most of its time on medical calls, covers the Stanford campus under contract and works out of stations from the bay to the foothills. Its history is less documented than the city's tech story. Still, the outlines are clear and several of its buildings still stand.

This page pulls together what published sources say. Where a date is uncertain, we say so. For the department's current services and phone numbers, see our page on police, fire and emergency alerts.

Volunteer beginnings

Palo Alto incorporated in April 1894. A 2024 profile in the trade paper 1st Responder News gives the same year for the fire department's founding. We have not found the original ordinance, so treat 1894 as the commonly cited date rather than a confirmed one.

Like most small California towns, Palo Alto first relied on volunteers. A 2026 Palo Alto Daily Post history roundup says the city relied on volunteer service run from an old town hall before it built its first real fire station. The young town also had an advantage many neighbors lacked. It began building its own water system in 1896 and its own electric plant in 1900.

That utility system mattered on the morning of April 18, 1906. As the great earthquake shook the town, engineer Robert McGlynn shut off the supply at the city power plant while its 60-foot tower swayed. Palo Alto lost about half its chimneys but avoided the fires that destroyed San Francisco. Our page on the 1906 earthquake tells that story.

The 1927 station on Bryant Street

The city's first purpose-built central fire station opened in 1927 at 450 Bryant Street. It shared the building with the police department. The architect was Birge Clark, who gave it the Spanish Colonial Revival look he was bringing to much of downtown.

The building served public safety for decades. After the police and fire offices moved out, it found a new life. In 1978 Avenidas, a nonprofit founded in 1969, opened a central senior center there. It remains the Avenidas senior center today, next door to the Bryant Street Community Center. The state lists the building as a California Point of Historical Interest under the name "Old Palo Alto Fire Department, Senior Citizens Center," number P508, recorded on July 28, 1977. Our guide to historic landmarks lists it with the city's other state markers.

The 1936 Barron Park fire

Palo Alto's early department served the city, not its unincorporated neighbors. That line could be harsh. In 1936 the Barron Mansion, the country house that gave Barron Park its name, burned down. The estate lay outside city limits. According to the neighborhood's historian, the Palo Alto fire department refused to help fight the blaze. The episode fed decades of resentment in Barron Park.

In 1949 Barron Park residents voted four to one to form their own fire district with a volunteer department. The area stayed out of the city until it was annexed in 1975. Today Fire Station 5 sits at 600 Arastradero Road in Barron Park, beside Juana Briones Park. Our Barron Park guide covers the neighborhood's independent streak.

Postwar growth and new stations

Palo Alto's population more than tripled between 1940 and 1970 as tract houses filled the south of the city. The fire department grew with it. One documented example is Station 3 at 799 Embarcadero Road, beside Rinconada Park. It opened in 1948 as a one-story, 3,454-square-foot building that cost the city about $50,000. At the time, Fire Chief Eric Nickel later noted, the whole department had 23 people and a narrow mission: fighting fires.

Other stations followed as the city spread south and into the hills. In late 2026 the department's stations included Station 1 at 301 Alma Street, Station 3 on Embarcadero Road, Station 4 in Mitchell Park, Station 5 in Barron Park, Station 6 on the Stanford campus and a seasonal Station 8 in the foothills. Station 8 opens during fire season to cover the open space around the Foothills Nature Preserve.

Paramedics and ambulances, 1974

The biggest change in the department's work came in the 1970s. Palo Alto rolled out its own ambulance service in 1974. Its firefighters trained as emergency medical technicians and paramedics. Today fire calls are a small share of the work. A 2025 Palo Alto Online report put fires at 1.4 percent of the department's calls for service.

In 2015 the department adjusted its staffing so that every engine and station had at least one advanced life support paramedic. Households can also sign up for Palo Alto FireMed, a low-cost monthly ambulance subscription. The department now handles fire suppression, emergency medical calls, ambulance transport, hazardous materials and technical and water rescue. Its Fire Prevention Bureau handles inspections and permits.

Covering Stanford since 1976

Stanford had its own fire operation for decades, staffed in part by student firefighters who lived in the firehouse. In 1976 the campus and Palo Alto fire operations merged and Palo Alto began providing fire and paramedic service to the university under contract. Stanford magazine has described the student program as it once ran: 14 student firefighters earned $150 a month during the school year and lived in the firehouse for free.

The contract has had rough patches. Palo Alto once ran two stations on campus. In 2012 it closed Station 7, one of the two. Stanford then asked for a new deal. After its October 2013 payment, Stanford declined to renew and began shopping for another provider. The dispute ran for about five years.

The August 2018 deal, reported by the Palo Alto Daily Post, set a five-year contract with a five-year renewal unless either side reopens it. Station 6 on campus, with its training tower, still answers about six calls in a typical 24-hour shift, according to a 2015 Palo Alto Online profile. Our page on Stanford and the city puts the contract in the wider story of town and gown.

The 1998 flood

The department's largest emergency of the late 20th century was water, not fire. On the night of February 2 to 3, 1998, San Francisquito Creek overflowed. Palo Alto crews took a boat down city streets in 3 to 4 feet of water, rescuing people trapped under overpasses and pumping out basements. Fire Chief Ruben Grijalva later called it the largest emergency he had worked. The episode also produced "sandbag-gate," when it emerged that firefighters and police had sandbagged the city manager's house. Read the full story on our 1998 flood page.

Rebuilding the stations

By the 2010s the postwar stations were too small and not built for modern earthquakes. On January 30, 2018, crews demolished the 1948 Station 3 on Embarcadero Road. The council had approved a $5.9 million contract to build a larger, seismically sound station on the same corner.

The department's headquarters moved too. Fire administration now shares the Public Safety Building at 250 Sherman Avenue near California Avenue with the police department.

Staffing remains a live debate. In 2025 Station 4 in Mitchell Park housed an ambulance but no fire engine and south Palo Alto residents pushed back. A council committee reaffirmed that the station should have a fully staffed engine. The city also planned to hire civilian emergency medical staff for some ambulances.

For what to do before the next emergency, see our emergency preparedness guide.

Frequently asked questions