The City of Cypress and the Orange County Fire Authority officially dedicated the OCFA’s new Station 17 in Cypress, with a formal ribbon cutting and reception at the station on Saturday.
The City of Cypress and the Orange County Fire Authority officially dedicated the OCFA’s new Station 17 in Cypress, with a formal ribbon cutting and reception at the station on Saturday.
The event included an open house and tour for attendees of the ceremony as visitors got to take a look inside the new updated station. The new station replaces the building that was constructed in 1971. The new fire station building houses a 3-person fire engine, 4-person truck company, and a 2-person paramedic van around the clock. As an essential community facility, the fire station was designed and constructed to a 50-year life standard, and the station has its own back-up power generator in case of emergency.
Fire Station #17 provides the emergency response capability needed to serve the City of Cypress and neighboring OCFA member communities. The paramedic unit, engine company and truck company, will provide enhanced emergency medical capability and will add depth of service within the city and work conjunctively with Los Alamitos and La Palma.
The state-of-the-art station is also more energy efficient with double pane windows , tankless water heaters and back-up generators. The station is designed for a 50-year life span. The city and OCFA broke ground in 2008, but challenges such as ground water deep under the station created challenges for the construction crews during construction.
“It was a cooperative effort between the city of Cypress, and Orange County Fire Authority, it took us a little while, but the city really needs this and it’s quite an improvement and upgrading of the fire department. We are very proud of this facility,” Cypress Mayor Pro Tem Prakash Narain said.
Cypress City Council Member and OCFA Board Member Todd Seymore noted that the previous station had taken on the moniker of “Winchester House” because of the many additions it had received over the years, a reference to the famous northern California mansion. Not only does the new station encompass the newest features, it came in under budget.
“In April of 2006 I made the request to rebuild the station to then Chief Chip Prather and in the FY 2007-08 budget cycle, the OCFA Board authorized the expenditure of over $6,000,000 towards replacing the old station with this beautiful new structure and ended up with a total cost of $4,650,760.15,” Seymore said.
The station has a work out room as OCFA now places a premium on maintaining good physical conditioning. OCFA Battalion Chief Bill Lockhart, who MC’d the event said during a tour for guests that when he was a young firefighter, there were some firefighters who still smoked at the dinner table.
The new station also now houses 10 individual dorm rooms and private bathroom facilities. Since the firefighting profession has long since ceased to be an all-male field, stations no longer use a barracks style housing.
For additional information regarding Station 17 or OCFA services, please contact OCFA Battalion Chief Bill Lockhart at 714-527-5509, or Public Information Officer Marc Stone at 714-319-4657.
