FIRED UP

City officials shoveled ceremonial dirt Friday at the official ground-breaking of the Newport Beach Fire Department’s Santa Ana Heights station.

The new fire station ? set to be completed in a little more than a year ? will replace a temporary station and will include the city’s first-ever training station.

Under the shadows of airplanes taking off from John Wayne Airport, Fire Chief Tim Riley welcomed a small crowd to the site of a new fire station that’s been almost 30 years in the making.

The $11.5-million station, designed by two Orange County architects, was made to reflect the neighborhood’s equestrian roots. On a visible lot at the corner of Mesa Drive and Acacia Street, the fire station will be a welcoming entrance to the neighborhood, said architects Rubio Medina and Don Iler.

? Lauren Vanedpt.15-firestation-CPhotoInfoRP1SVCN620060715j2f2soncCredit: JAMIE FLANAGAN / DAILY PILOT Caption: (LA)In E. Moon, who owns a business nearby, examines the blueprints for the Santa Ana Heights Fire Station before the groundbreaking ceremony took place on Friday.