Richmond Fire Department reports 2025 totals, describes 3-alarm Public Storage fire and demolition plan
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Summary
Fire Chief reported 14,284 incident responses in 2025 (about a 5.5% drop from 2024) and detailed a three-alarm fire at a Public Storage facility on Carlson Boulevard; the city is reviewing a demolition permit filed Jan. 7 and investigations remain ongoing.
Richmond Fire Chief (transcript identifies him as Chief Rosario) briefed neighborhood leaders on Jan. 12 about the departments 2025 totals and several high-profile incidents over the winter holiday period, including a three-alarm fire at a Public Storage facility on Carlson Boulevard that remains under investigation.
"The 2025 year end totals, we responded to 14,284 incidents in 2025," Chief Rosario said, noting the total represented "about a 5 and a half percent reduction from 2024 numbers." He highlighted 79 working structure fires, 39 vegetation fires and 736 encampment fires for the year and said vegetation and encampment fires showed notable decreases compared with 2024.
Chief Rosario described four notable incidents over the DecemberNew Year period. On Dec. 24 a three-alarm commercial fire at the Public Storage facility at 398 Carlson Boulevard consumed one wing of the building, required mutual aid and left the structure unsafe. "The roof collapsed to the 2nd Floor, and the 2nd Floor collapsed to the 1st Floor," he said. He added that Public Storage applied for a demolition permit on Jan. 7 and that the city is reviewing that permit, with hopes demolition will proceed soon so Carlson Boulevard can be reopened when safe.
The chief also described a residential fire at Friendship Manor that displaced occupants and a fatal house fire on Gateway; investigations are ongoing in those cases. He said investigators cannot safely enter the collapsed storage facility at present and that the fire department has transitioned out of emergency operations into recovery and demolition oversight at the city level.
On personnel and programs, Chief Rosario said the department made promotions and progress on prevention staffing: a new fire inspector was promoted, bringing the bureau to five inspectors, and ten conditional job offers were issued to recruits for the 2026 academy (the academy is tentatively scheduled for May and will run 16 weeks as a joint program with El Cerrito Fire).
The chief also said the city will return to council to consider a local wildfire-prevention designation for parts of Point Richmond and Chevron property to allow vegetation-management enforcement consistent with safety goals.
Next steps: the Public Storage site remains under investigation and demolition-permit review by the city; the fire department said it will keep the public informed about reopening Carlson Boulevard and about any additional safety or inspection notices.
