[glewis80SC]

At stations where there are "structure fire runs" all night long, then yes, there is no substitute for sworn firefighters.

The question is, What about Newport Beach, Fountain Valley, Westminster, Costa Mesa, Laguna Beach, Los Alamitos, Manhattan Beach, Sierra Madre, Arcadia and on and on and on...

At night, there is no traffic. Long Beach is only 53 square miles. At 10 pm, a centrally located fire engine or ladder truck could be anywhere in the city within 7 or 8 minutes (excluding the harbor, which has its own fire station anyway.)

The question is, Why staff for structure fires during night time hours at every station? Why staff for medical runs at every fire station during night time hours?[/QUOTE]

These "slower stations" still serve the public in their area, each station has its own designated "first in" district that they respond to when a call comes in. Some of the first in areas are bigger than others based on population in that area etc. The busier stations are running the calls in their area so they can not respond to the slower stations, even at night, in a timely manner. So if that slower station is closed at night there will be a lengthy delay in an emergency.
Most of these slower stations are in residential areas where believe in or not the majority of the calls come in at night be it EMS or fire related. If you have only one centrally located station open at night when they are out on a call and another one comes in for that area the delay in service will go from 7-8 minutes to 10-15.
This may not seem like a long time but it is if there is a true emergency, I don't have the answer on how to or not to staff these stations but the people living in that area deserve the same level of service as those in busier ones.