Oakland, California’s fire chief is concerned about budget cuts

As Oakland faces the possibility of major cuts, the fire chief raises public safety concerns.

The focus is once again on Oakland’s budget after the fire last weekand comments from the city’s fire chief. And that includes some uncertainty about what exactly might be cut as the city now moves to its emergency budget, CBS reported.

“If you take five engines out of place and the three engines that we don’t normally have, that would be eight engines that would have been first in line because of the fire,” Chief Damon Covington told a budget committee on Tuesday. “With very little math, you can say that these homes on Campus Drive probably would have been lost, at the very least.”

The response to last week’s basement fire in the Oakland Hills is something that could take a hit from the city’s emergency budget.

The council approved a budget back in July largely built in conjunction with the sale of the Oakland Coliseumwhere certain payments are expected in a certain period of time.

The city receives more money for the sale of the property, but the schedule does not meet the original budget, so a replacement or emergency budget is put into motion that calls for the freezing of five fire companies for nine months.