The president of the city's firefighter union blames recent fire department budget cuts for slower response times that he says resulted in "increased fire loss" in two house fires in the hills last month.

Yet Fire Chief Gerald Simon said yesterday that the accusations made by union president Steve Splendorio were "absolutely not correct."

In a June 10 letter to Mayor Jerry Brown, Splendorio states: "Over the last few weeks we have been reminded of the real consequences of these cuts."

Since January, two of the six hills fire stations, on a rotating basis, have not been using their fire engine to respond to fires, but have been responding to medical emergencies. Also on a rotating basis, one out of seven of the city's fire engines has been shut down from responding to fire calls.

The reductions were part of a plan to save $2.1 million as the city balanced a $20.5 million deficit this year.

Splendorio said the cuts have led to "unsafe conditions" that impacted two recent house fires in the hills, one on Moore Drive on May 20 and another on Mountain Boulevard on May 30.

In the Moore Drive fire, Splendorio said the closest fire company was closed because of the budget cuts. The next closest company responded in seven minutes, but he wrote that "by this time the fire had completely engulfed the home and, despite the best efforts of our firefighters, the home ultimately was burned to the ground."

Simon, however, said the closest station had not yet been closed at the time of the fire, about 4 a.m.

In the Mountain Boulevard fire, the nearest company was also out of service, Splendorio writes. Coincidentally, a fire crew happened to be in the area and responded within five minutes.

He wrote, "the closest assigned company took over 10 minutes to arrive on the scene . . . Without the luck of having an engine in the area, this fire could have posed a significant threat."

Again, however, Simon said that was incorrect. He said four units responded to that fire in just over five minutes.

The city's standard for fire crews responding to calls is to reach the property 65 percent of the time within five minutes of the dispatch call.

Now that fire season has started, fire services in the hills have been beefed up. But the two hills house fires occurred before the department increased its personnel.

City Councilwoman Jean Quan, District 4, said response times in the hills are longer than citywide because of the narrow, curving streets and the abundance of parked cars that sometimes block fire engine access.

She also said vegetation management -- keeping in check overgrown bushes and trees in the hills and near homes -- is a major safety concern in the hills that she has been working to alleviate.

Splendorio, however, feels the situation is clear. He wrote to Brown "to point out the obvious," he said. He said the mayor has not put a high enough priority on the fire department budget as the city has gone through consecutive rounds of severe cuts.

"In (Brown's) mind, his arts program is more important than fire services," he said.

Brown did not respond to repeated calls for comment.

Further cuts to fire services in the current budget proposal call for the closure of a fire station in the 2004-05 fiscal year. However, Quan and Councilwoman Jane Brunner, District 1, have opposed that closure and are seeking money elsewhere in the budget to keep the station open.

No station has yet been specified for closure, though Quan said she thought it might be Station 8 in North Oakland.

Quan voted against the fire service reductions in January, while Brunner abstained.

Of the further cuts, Splendorio writes in his letter, "We are extremely concerned about the impact of these cuts on our ability to protect Oaklanders from the threat of fire ... Fire doubles in size and intensity every 30 seconds. The difference between a four-minute response and an eight-minute response may be the difference between life and death."

Instead of fire service cuts, Splendorio said he would like to see administration reduced within the department. He said six new departmental administration positions are included in the city's current budget proposal, along with the proposed cuts to front-line fire services.

"I don't think that's what the citizens want," he said.