A groundbreaking ceremony on Monday morning marked a key milestone for efforts to replace an old Santa Barbara County fire station in the Cuyama Valley.
The new facility will be built on county-owned parcels at the intersection of Newsome Street and Highway 166 in the unincorporated community of New Cuyama in the northeast corner of Santa Barbara County.
Firefighters, sheriff’s deputies and elected officials gathered at the site for the small ceremony Monday to replace what a General Services staff report called an “antiquated fire station and appartus bay as well as its modular dormitory.”
In addition to housing Santa Barbara County Fire Department’s personnel, vehicles and equipment, the new 9,000-square-foot facility will include a 1,000-square-foot Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department substation to meet “essential services” standards. Deputies who serve the Cuyama Valley currently operate from an old house.
Overall, the estimated budget, including demolition, construction, temporary housing and more, adds up to $7.7 million, officials said last year.
To prepare for the construction, demolition of an existing fire station and apparatus bay and removal of an existing modular complex already occurred. A temporary shelter has been installed nearby. Construction should be complete in approximately a year.
Station 27 (formerly Station 41) has the largest response area in the county department.
In addition to serving Cuyama Valley residents, Station 27 frequently responds to high-speed, often deadly vehicle crashes along Highway 166, the main route linking the Central Coast to the Bakersfield area.
The crew of Station 27 also responds to a number of vegetation fires in the remote area.
The Cuyama Valley facility’s construction came amid a flurry of fire station construction that took place throughout the county in the 1950s, according to Fire Department history.
At the time, the Board of Supervisors agreed to provide fire protection for Cuyama at the request of the Richfield Oil Corp., which gave the land and the fire station, and had two dwelling units built on the property
When construction was completed in spring 1952, the county purchased the land and dwellings that Richfield had built for $45,000.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.