EL CENTRO, Calif. – Personnel with Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command (NAVFAC) Southwest, Naval Air Facility El Centro, and contract partners attended a groundbreaking ceremony held June 22 in Naval Air Facility El Centro which commemorated the official start of construction on a structural and aircraft rescue fire station.

“This state-of-the-art facility, once completed, will safeguard the lives of emergency responders and protect essential equipment by adhering to the highest building and safety codes,” said Laurie Scott, NAVFAC Southwest commanding officer. “This project proves that together, we can construct a resilient facility that provides a beacon of safety and comfort for those who protect us.”

NAVFAC Southwest awarded a contract, Sept. 1, 2022 in San Diego to RQ Construction of Carlsbad Calif., to execute work on the replacement project to replaces two structurally deficient 80-year old facilities, correcting four major seismic deficiencies, ten fire and life safety issues, and six American Disability Act violations across multiple building and fire safety codes with one code-compliant fire station facility. The facility, once completed, will meet today’s building and safety codes and will be better suited to protect emergency responders and essential equipment required to supporting the mission of Naval Air Facility El Centro.

The design for the Structural and Aircraft Rescue Fire Station, a planned 20,283 square foot facility, includes an apparatus highbay with support spaces for personal protective equipment (PPE) and spare PPE storage, hose storage, self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) maintenance and compressor rooms equipment maintenance and wash, protective clothing laundry, emergency medical technician (EMT) storage, hazardous material equipment storage, fire extinguisher inspection station and maintenance area, a residential area with day room, kitchen and dining, dorm rooms, laundry, fitness and recreation rooms with training and administration spaces. The residential and administration portion of the facility is planned to have offices, dorm rooms, training room, computers for training and testing, kitchen and dining area, day room, fitness room, laundry room, and restrooms with showers.

Demolition includes the removal of the existing Aircraft Rescue Fire Station Bunkhouse and Aircraft Rescue Fire Station apparatus bay to support the construction and consolidation of the facility being constructed. The existing Aircraft Rescue Fire Station Bunkhouse and Aircraft Rescue Fire Station were originally built as a temporary wooden aircraft maintenance hangar and temporary storage facility in 1942.

In the 80’s, the maintenance hangar was converted into a fire station to house federal fire vehicles and rescue apparatuses, and the temporary storage was converted into a bunkhouse in support of the fire station. A military construction project was originally submitted in 2003 to combine both the fire station and bunkhouse, as per requirements set forth in the building codes defining an actual fire station. To allow for the shortest response time to an emergency, the sleeping quarters were required to be in the same facility as the emergency response vehicles. On Sept. 30, 2021, Senate passed a Continuing Resolution that included a provision for $565 million in Operations and Maintenance funding to be used for natural disaster recovery under the 10 USC 2854 Authority. The project to replace the dilapidated fire station and bunkhouse, which had accrued additional damage due to high-intensity earthquakes in 2020, was included in this funding set-aside.

Naval Air Facility El Centro, one of the Navy’s premier tactical training air installations, supports the combat training and readiness of the Warfighter which includes air operations support to operational fleet and training squadrons as well as squadrons from other services (USMC, USA, USAF) and Allies.

NAVFAC Southwest supports planning, design, construction, real estate, environmental and public works for U.S Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and other supported federal agencies in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico.