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Menlo Park Fire: East Palo Alto fire station staffing limited; officials urge more CERT and community training
Summary
Menlo Park Fire and the East Palo Alto council discussed local response capacity — Station 2 typically has eight personnel on duty — and emphasized community education, CERT expansion and volunteer radio/communications nodes to support response during a major disaster.
Mark Lorenzen, fire chief for the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, told the council that Station 2 in East Palo Alto typically staffs seven personnel plus a battalion chief (eight on duty) and that a major Bay Area earthquake would quickly overwhelm that local capacity.
"At our Station 2 here in East Palo Alto, we have 7 people plus a battalion chief, so 8 really on duty at any 1 point in time," Lorenzen said, and he warned that mutual aid may not be available immediately in a large, region‑wide event. Menlo Park Fire urged continuing community preparedness and offered CERT, CPR and ‘‘Red Cross Ready’’ classes to improve household and neighborhood resilience.
Nut graf: Fire officials and community representatives focused on practical steps the city can promote: increasing CERT recruitment (including Spanish and trilingual offerings), staging CERT trailers and supplies, and establishing neighborhood resiliency hubs with radios and basic generators to support early post‑event assessments.
Heather Keller, Menlo Park Fire’s community risk reduction officer, described monthly classes and community outreach, including Listos (Spanish‑language preparedness training) and partnerships to bring classes into schools and senior centers. The fire district said it can coordinate CERT academies and tailor training to neighborhood schedules.
Ending: Council members supported additional community outreach, proposed increasing the number of local CERT‑trained residents and asked staff to explore multilingual CERT offerings and improved radio communications for neighborhoods.
