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When Newport Beach firefighters assigned to Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 go to work just after this Fourth of July holiday weekend, they’ll be trading in their bunks in a run-down, 70-year-old station near the old City Hall for new spiffy quarters just down the way that should make their jobs and the community safer.

The new station, which cost nearly $10 million, with the purchase of the land it sits on, is nearly complete with only a few details to work out, including syncing a new signal that will stop traffic to help get engines out quickly when answering a call.

Newport Beach Firefighters perform the traditional “push in” of the fire truck during a ribbon cutting for the new Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Three-year-old Jaxson Dordoni checks out an exhaust hose inside the new Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 on Tuesday, June 28, 2022 during a ribbon cutting and open house. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Newport Beach Fire Chief, Jeff Boyles, is all smiles during a ribbon cutting and open house of Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The new Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 in Newport Beach features dorm rooms with views of the beach. Officials held a ribbon cutting and open house on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The new Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 in Newport Beach features easy in and out access of trucks. Officials help a ribbon cutting and open house on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Officials hold a public ribbon cutting and open house for the new Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Newport Beach Council member Diane Dixon and Mayor Kevin Muldoon cut the ribbon to the new Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Officials hold a public ribbon cutting and open house for the new Peninsula Fire Station No. 2 on Tuesday, June 28, 2022. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

The timing of the station’s completion couldn’t be better.

The station is the city’s busiest, and action along the peninsula always ramps up in summer. There is plenty for firefighters to do at the beaches, and with lots of cars on narrow roads, residences built close together, the bars, Pacific Coast Highway, several senior living homes and nearby Hoag Hospital, they keep busy.

“When you put that many people on the peninsula, and the larger south swells always come in in the summer, we have water accidents, vehicle accidents and pedestrian and bicycle accidents. There’s a lot going on,” said Newport Beach Fire Chief Jeff Boyles, who began his career years ago in the old station.

He expects the new station to average about 30 calls a day in the summer, he said.

The station’s official ribbon-cutting was held on Wednesday, June 28, but firefighters will move in early next week.

“To go from the run-down station to something brand new is really exciting,” Boyles said.

The new two-story station on 28th Street – it’s just four blocks from the old one – was built on an empty lot purchased by the city that once housed a McDonald’s restaurant.

It has a Cape Cod-like Lido design with a tall tower and an urban contemporary look. It easily fits the station’s three vehicles: a ladder truck, a fire engine and a paramedic ambulance. Firefighters have a new kitchen, day room and fitness area. There are 12 dorm rooms.

“The biggest feature is that it’s a pull-through,” Boyles said. “That means firefighters can drive their apparatus through the back since the garage is two-sided, and we no longer have to back in the apparatus.”

Equally important is a room where firefighters can clean and decontaminate their gear after responding to fire calls. The room will have an extractor machine that removes the carcinogens from their protective wear when they return from firefights.

The station also meets all seismic standards and will have the newest technology to help firefighters with their response times.

One thing firefighters will make sure to take with them from the old station is a wooden kitchen table they built. Made to look like the American flag, the table has the station’s anchor logo embedded, which symbolizes “anchoring the peninsula,” a nod to the local maritime heritage.

“It won’t be a soft start,” Boyles assured of the upcoming move. “It will be pedal to the metal once we flip the switch with our dispatch center; they’ll be running out.”

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