WeHo Times: Congresswoman Friedman Secures $500K to Help Replace West Hollywood Fire Station 8

U.S. Rep. Laura Friedman announced Monday a new $500,000 federal investment to help replace Los Angeles County Fire Station 8 in West Hollywood, a 73-year-old facility L.A. County officials have deemed vulnerable to collapse during a major earthquake.

The station, built in 1953, was constructed with rigid concrete that does not meet modern seismic standards. In 2023, Los Angeles County identified the building as one of 33 county-owned structures considered at risk of collapse during a significant seismic event.

Station 8 serves a dense and heavily traveled area that includes the Sunset Strip, Santa Monica Boulevard and surrounding neighborhoods in West Hollywood and central Los Angeles County.

“The firefighters of Station 8 have spent 73 years walking out of this building and into danger to protect this community,” Friedman said during a news conference Monday. “They’ve done it without hesitation, without complaint, and from a building where they lay their heads at night knowing it’s been deemed vulnerable to collapse.”

Fire Station 8 West Hollywood – WEHO TIMES

“The men and women who work here deserve a station that’s safe, modern, and built for the emergencies of today — not 1953,” she added. “This $500,000 federal investment is a down payment on that promise, and I’m going to keep fighting until it’s finished.”

Friedman said the funding would help support development of a modern fire station designed for current emergency response demands and future disasters.

“This half a million dollars is a federal investment in the safety of every resident, every worker and every visitor in West Hollywood and the surrounding region,” Friedman said. “This will go towards building a modern, seismically safe fire station that meets the needs of today’s emergency responders and the growing communities that they represent and that they protect.”

The announcement comes as Los Angeles continues recovering from the devastating January 2025 wildfires, including the Palisades and Eaton fires, which strained firefighting resources across the region and intensified concerns over aging public safety infrastructure.

“We all lived through the devastating wildfires in 2025 — the Palisades fire, the Eaton fire,” Friedman said. “Communities across Los Angeles were shattered. LA County firefighters were on the very front lines of that disaster from the first moment.”

She also pointed to upcoming international events expected to bring millions of visitors to Southern California.

“Fire season is now year-round,” Friedman said. “And with the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Olympics coming to Los Angeles, we need to be ready. We don’t need to be ready in 10 years. We need to be ready now.”

Earlier this year, Friedman secured more than $1 million to modernize the Verdugo Fire Communications Center, the emergency dispatch hub serving more than 944,000 residents across 13 Los Angeles County cities. According to Friedman, the center relied on technology dating back to 1997 and handled more than 2,100 calls in a single day during the January 2025 fires.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who joined Friedman at Monday’s announcement, said firefighters and local officials had advocated for a replacement station for years. Horvath also announced that county Measure E funds would contribute to the broader replacement effort. “Today is exactly what voters had in mind,” she said. “Making sure we’re building for the future, protecting residents and supporting the first responders who show up for all of us each and every single day.”

The supervisor also recalled a 2022 fire in her own building that was handled by Fire Station 8 firefighters.

“It was this team that responded to keep me safe, to keep my neighbors safe and to keep this whole community safe,” Horvath said. “That luxury was only afforded to us because of your bravery, your courage and your skill showing up in record time to care for us.”

West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman pledged the city’s support in identifying a site and expediting construction of a new facility.

“We’re very lucky to be served by the LA County Fire Department and by the men and women of that department,” Heilman said. “They need a building to match their service. They need a new building, and we stand ready as partners to make sure that happens.”

Heilman said city officials are already working to identify properties for the project.

“We are going to commit ourselves to do everything we can to find an appropriate location, to get this project expedited and to get it built,” he said. “I would imagine that we’ll be here together in 2028 sometime to do the ribbon cutting.”

The news conference also included L.A County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone, West Hollywood council members Chesea Byers and John Erickson, and firefighters assigned to Fire Station 8, many of whom have continued operating from the aging structure despite longstanding safety concerns.

According to Marrone, they hope to secure a new property near the current fire station 8 and hope to host a ribbon cutting ceremony in 2028.

The future of the current structure is not yet known.