Ross is finding out what happens when the town pulls the plug on its longtime firehouse and then starts watching the clock. Consultants and local activists say shuttering the civic-center station has slowed emergency responses, and the numbers have reignited a months-long fight over how the town handles public safety. With a Town Council meeting looming, neighbors and officials are trading spreadsheets and sketches while they argue over how, or even whether, to rebuild the civic-center emergency hub.
As the Ross Valley Fire Department announced in a public notice, Station 18 at the civic complex was taken out of service effective July 1, 2025, and Engine 18 was removed from active duty. The Ross Valley Paramedic Authority still runs a paramedic ambulance out of the building, and the fire department says it has shuffled engine staffing to neighboring stations to keep coverage in place across the valley.
Consultants Say the Clock Is Slipping
A consultant review of calls after the closure found that from July 1 through Oct. 31, a fire engine arrived within 10 minutes, 56 seconds for 90% of 38 incidents in the Ross area. When four calls outside the town limits were excluded, that 90th-percentile time dropped to 9 minutes, 34 seconds. The same review showed ambulances reached 90% of 36 calls in 14 minutes, 2 seconds, while the adjusted ambulance figure, excluding out-of-town incidents, averaged about 9 minutes, 52 seconds, according to the Marin Independent Journal. Consultants and the Ross Valley fire chief told reporters that the station closure has delayed most engine and ambulance responses by roughly two minutes.
Why Station 18 Went Dark
The shutdown stems from a multi-year facilities review and a 2021 Town Council decision to pull the Ross firehouse out of the civic-center rebuild in order to cut costs and allow the department to increase staffing on other engines. A 2019 consultant analysis warned that relocating the engine could add about two minutes to response times, a projection that opponents say is now showing up in the call data. Firehouse reviewed the earlier planning work and the political fight over renovation plans and staffing tradeoffs.
Neighbors Mount a Firehouse Rescue Plan
In response, local organizers have drafted an initiative that would require Ross to maintain an operational fire station in town and to prioritize rehabilitating the existing building. The full ballot text and rationale are posted by Friends of Ross Firehouse. The group says its proposal is aimed at preserving faster response times and keeping a staffed engine within town limits while civic-center plans move ahead.
Town leaders counter that they have moved to secure paramedic coverage while the civic project proceeds. Mayor Julie McMillan announced that the town signed a long-term lease with the Ross Valley Paramedic Authority on Dec. 4 that commits the authority to build a new paramedic station "by 2029 or sooner," and a public meeting is set for Jan. 8 where advocates plan to present renovation concepts and officials will lay out public-safety data, the Marin Independent Journal reports. Residents and the advocacy group say they will use that forum to push elected leaders for firmer timelines and detailed data on how the reconfigured staffing is affecting life-saving responses.
