Four fire stations saved from Oakland’s budget axe

The City of Oakland said it will keep open four fire stations that they had intended to close temporarily as the city struggles with closing a 130 million dollar deficit.

The city administrator’s office said Friday that three other fire stations would be “browned out,” or have reduced operations, through June in an attempt to close the budget shortfall. They are all expected to resume full operations once the fiscal year ends.

City officials said a series of budget cutbacks, including a hiring freeze, the cancellation or reduction of  city-issued grants, and employee layoffs have helped reduce the projected budget gap for the current year.

Those moves helped prevent four of seven fire stations that were targeted for temporary closure.