Fire fighters readying for new station

Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT COAST -- The Newport Beach Fire Department will set up shop in

its newly named Fire Station 8 on Tuesday when annexation of Newport

Coast becomes official.

Firefighters will take over the building, at 6502 Ridge Park Road,

which was previously owned by the Orange County Fire Authority that

served community residents.

The station will be manned by a captain, a fire engineer and a

paramedic.

The department has spent the last year preparing for this day, said

Chief Tim Riley.

“We’ve had several new hires and a number of promotions,” he said.

“But still we’re going to be short-handed and will have to count on

overtime the month of January because a lot of the new people won’t come

in till the end of the month.”

Complex political issues surrounding the annexation also made it

difficult for the Fire Department to plan ahead of time, Riley said.

“We only had 28 days after the annexation was formalized,” he said.

“But our people still went ahead and got it done.”

The City Council also had to consider rewritten mutual-aid agreements

with the Orange County Fire Authority and Laguna Niguel. The council has

approved the agreement with the Fire Authority and is expected to approve

the agreement with Laguna Niguel in January.

Riley said the department will focus the first year mostly on

assessing the needs of the community.

“We need to get familiar with the fire protection and emergency

services issues in the area,” he said.

An interesting challenge, he said, is the fact that firefighters will

have to cover a large area with a small population that is well spread

out as opposed to Newport Beach, which is relatively more tightly packed.

“That could mean travel times are longer,” Riley said.

He added he does not expect the nature of services to be largely

different.

“The only difference is from the wildland perspective,” he said. “We

have little experience in that area and will need to get familiar.”

The agreement with Laguna Niguel, that has more experience fighting

brush fires, will help, Riley said.

He said the department will also consider buying an off-road vehicle

to deal with fire or rescue situations that crop up in the hilly areas.

* Deepa Bharath covers public safety and courts. She may be reached at

(949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at o7 deepa.bharath@latimes.comf7 .