Huntington Park fire station re-opens 11 months after severe fire ...Middle East

Just months after it was heavily damaged by an early morning fire, Los Angeles County Fire Station 164 in Huntington Park was rededicated in a public ceremony Friday afternoon.

The April 11 ceremony was attended by L.A. County Board Supervisor of the Fourth District Janice Hahn, Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores, L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone, local firefighters and community members.

At about 4 a.m. May 1 of last year, firefighters and paramedics that had been asleep in the fire station awoke to urgent door-knocking and doorbell-ringing by a good samaritan, who had been heading to work when they saw the station was on fire.

The firefighters were battling the early morning flames alongside firefighters from responding stations until about an hour later, when the fire was finally contained at 5:17 a.m. While the structure of the building was intact, the apparatus floor, firetrucks and other parts of the station sustained heavy damage. The ceiling lights had melted down to the floor.

“It was 11 months ago when I showed up and I couldn’t believe how devastated this was,” Hahn said. “ The fact that we got it done in 11 months is nothing short of a miracle.”

Hahn credited the speediness of the rebuilding to the power of making calls to the right departments and locating funding for the project. On Aug. 6, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors approved an allocation of $16,031,000 for the refurbishment of the fire-damaged station, a motion authored by Hahn at the request of Marrone.

Hahn’s motion also directed the fire chief and the county’s CEO to evaluate the insurance policies for all county-owned fire stations and other Fire Department facilities and report back to the board, with the goal of ensuring that they are fully insured in the case of any future fire or disaster.

L.A. County Fire Capt. Christopher Reade described the renovated station as a 60-year-old structure with 2025 state-of-the-art interior construction.

Some of the new safety features for the station include double-pane windows, according to Matt Johnson, a staffer for Hahn. Older buildings tend to have single-pane windows, which are less protective against fire. Johnson also mentioned there is now an extra wall dividing the building and the bay, so the fire is deterred from entering the residential area. New alarms were installed to alert anyone awake or asleep of any fires in the building, and new exhaust removal systems were installed as well.

Other features of the building include a new gym and kitchen, as well as new living quarters. Older firehouses tend to have bunkrooms, where the responders sleep on bunk beds in a shared room. Now, each responder will have a dorm-style room to live out of, which locks to provide more privacy, Hahn said.

Smaller details bring a sentimental value to the rebuilt station. Reade pointed out that signage that had survived a burnt fire truck and engine were now both hanging above doorways in the station. Also hanging over a doorway is an original Huntington Park Santa Fe and Clarendon Streets sign that had survived the fire.

After months of working out of Raul R. Perez Memorial Park, where the responders had been stationed during construction, it’s good to be back home, Reade said.

”It’s amazing. We’re out here, we’re running calls, we’re serving the community, and we couldn’t be happier,” Reade said. “We’re glad to do it.”

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