From Kim Minugh:
Sacramento Fire Department officials say the city's rolling "brownouts" of fire stations likely did not contribute to the size of a Tahoe Park home fire this morning, contrary to earlier cries that a station's closure delayed firefighters' response.
No one was hurt in the fire, which burned a home on 15th Avenue near 60th Street about 10:30 a.m., and the fire didn't spread to any nearby homes, said department spokesman Capt. Jim Doucette.
Nevertheless, Doucette earlier alleged, "it shouldn't have gotten as big as it did."
But after reviewing the call, Doucette said officials realized that Engine 6 - located at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and 8th Avenue in Oak Park - took about five and a half minutes to respond, rather than the seven minutes calculated earlier. Due to a miscommunication at the scene of the fire, the arrival time of the first unit was logged later than it should have been, Doucette said.
The department aims to respond to fires within five minutes, Doucette said.
On a normal day, Engine 10 - stationed at 65th Street and Fruitridge, just a mile and a half from the fire - would have responded, Doucette said. But the station closed today as part of a citywide cost-cutting strategy in which one station is shuttered each day, forcing other stations to absorb additional calls.
Doucette said that Engine 10 "no doubt" would've responded to the fire quicker than Engine 6 did, but he said the difference in response times probably would not have made a significant difference.
No one was home when the fire ignited. Investigators do not know what caused the blaze, Doucette said.
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