Kings County Declares Emergency, Strips Avenal of Fire Protection Services

When City Manager Antony Lopez overruled Kings County Fire Chief John Chamberlin to allow a boxing tournament inside an unpowered, under-construction building, he likely did not expect the county's response: the immediate termination of Avenal's fire protection contract, effective 5 p.m. the same day.

The Kings County Board of Supervisors convened an emergency weekend special session Saturday, March 28, and voted unanimously 5-0 to declare a public safety emergency and cancel its fire services agreement with the City of Avenal for cause. The decision left more than 13,000 residents without county fire coverage.

The trigger was a boxing tournament organized by Underdog Boxing, scheduled for Sunday at the Avenal Community Center at 919 Skyline Blvd. Chamberlin had flagged the building as unsafe, citing no PG&E power authorization, an inadequate sprinkler system, insufficient emergency access, and a non-functional fire alarm. He asked Lopez to move the event to the parking lot. Lopez refused, and the city issued a temporary certificate of occupancy.

The tournament went ahead Sunday anyway, one day after the contract was severed. About 100 people signed liability waivers just to enter.

"There's not enough emergency access. There's no power to the building," said Supervisor Doug Verboon.

Chamberlin was equally blunt about the city's competing safety assurances. "Their statement says all life safety systems are in place and functional, and we know that's not true. If PG&E hasn't even hooked up power, how is the fire alarm system functional?"

Lopez fired back that the county's own logic was self-defeating. "They indicated that there was a threat to public safety. The threat to public safety then resulted in them pulling services out of the City of Avenal. I'm not sure how that's helping or assisting any public safety," he said. He described conducting walkthroughs of the venue with the city engineer, police chief, and public works director before approving the event.

Kings County Fire then closed its only firehouse in Avenal and reassigned all crews. The city has since requested six months of continued coverage, pointing to contract language requiring that notice period before termination. The board of supervisors called a special meeting to address that request but had not issued an answer as of early April.

The boxing match was only the latest clash in a deepening dispute. Avenal began building its own municipal fire department in 2025, passing a local ordinance and hiring its own fire chief. Kings County District Attorney Sarah Hacker sued the city in December for alleged Brown Act violations, accusing officials of holding closed-door discussions about forming that department. The county had signed a multi-year fire services contract with Avenal in October, only to cancel it months later over a single tournament at an unfinished building.