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Ross council hears fire department response‑time report as residents press to reopen local station
Summary
Ross Valley Fire Chief Dan Mahoney presented July–Oct 2025 response‑time data showing a 90th‑percentile engine time of 10:56 and ambulance time of 14:02 (9:34/9:52 if incidents outside Ross are excluded). Residents and the Friends of the Ross Firehouse urged restoring the Ross station; council asked staff for more data and scheduled further review.
Ross Town Council received a presentation on Dec. 17 from Ross Valley Fire Department Chief Dan Mahoney summarizing response‑time data from July 1–Oct. 31, 2025, and opened the floor to an extended public discussion about the closure of Ross Fire Station 18.
Using the CityGate methodology employed in the 2019 standards‑of‑cover report, Chief Mahoney said the 90th‑percentile fire engine response time for the sample was "10 minutes and 56 seconds" and the ambulance 90th‑percentile was "14 minutes and 2 seconds." He also offered a Town‑limits‑only calculation that reduced those numbers to "9 minutes and 34 seconds" for engines and "9 minutes and 52 seconds" for ambulances after excluding incidents outside the Ross town boundary. Mahoney emphasized the dataset was small (38 incidents) and recommended a larger, longer dataset and separating non‑emergency incidents for future analysis.
The presentation and subsequent council questions turned on how to interpret those figures. Several council members pressed the chief on methodology, asking about NFPA 1710 benchmarks and whether the town should emphasize 90th‑percentile targets (what consultants and CityGate use) or average times that the public may find easier to grasp. Chief Mahoney defended the 90th‑percentile approach as an industry standard intended to measure consistency rather than a mean.
Public comment included repeated appeals to restore local engine service. Bob Herbst of the Friends of the Ross Firehouse said the group is preparing a plan "to reopen our firehouse and return the 7 minute and 55 second response time" Ross had when the station was open. Several parents, coaches and former firefighters argued that longer travel distances from San Anselmo and Kentfield make response times longer and reduce system redundancy; others emphasized that even a small increase in 90th‑percentile response times can be the difference in cardiac arrest outcomes.
Supporters of keeping specialized paramedic service in Ross noted a recent eight‑year lease the Ross Valley Paramedic Authority approved with the town that will take effect when a new Ross paramedic facility opens or by Jan. 1, 2029, whichever occurs first. Council members asked staff to return with expanded analyses that separate emergency from non‑emergency calls, compare like‑for‑like CityGate data where possible, and examine ambulance availability and unit‑hour utilization across the district.
No formal council action was taken; councilmembers said they would continue to seek more complete data and to discuss operational and capital options — including reviewing alternatives offered by the Friends of the Ross Firehouse at the council’s Jan. 8 meeting.
Ending: The council closed discussion by asking staff and the chief to collect a larger dataset and to provide refined, apples‑to‑apples comparisons to earlier studies when the item returns for further review.
