When Stanford University's National Accelerator Laboratory calls, the Menlo Park Fire Protection District will now come running. The district announced that effective May 1, it will provide fire services to the lab under a new three-year contract.

Previously served by Palo Alto's fire department, which maintained a station on-site, SLAC decided it no longer needed the service as calls had decreased from 400 per year in the mid-1990s to less than 100 currently, according to a press release. The laboratory has also upgraded its emergency detection and response systems.

The new agreement includes a provision for the Woodside Fire Protection District to provide supplemental emergency services as needed.

"Given the site location, its high level of life-and-fire safety mitigation efforts, actual call activity and risk, it makes sense that the surrounding fire agencies provide basic emergency response services to the site and we can support that by using existing off-site fire stations in Menlo Park and Woodside," said fire district chief Harold Schapelhouman.