![\"Participants](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SUT-L-Fire-Station-new-02.jpg\")
Participants at Wednesday\u2019s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new, temporary Fire Station 1 participate in a traditional fire truck \u201cpush-in\u201d event. (Barbara Henry \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nEncinitas celebrated the grand opening of a new, temporary fire station Wednesday on the Pacific View Arts Center property with a ceremonial \u201cpush-in\u201d of a fire truck.<\/p>\n
The $2.1 million fire station \u2014 a two-bay, 1,600-square-foot garage, plus a 2,600-square-foot manufactured home with firefighter living quarters \u2014 is considered a \u201ctemporary\u201d structure, but it\u2019s built to last a while.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because it\u2019s going be at least a half-dozen years before Encinitas can start pursing a new, permanent replacement, Mayor Bruce Ehlers said before the start of Wednesday\u2019s ceremony. The city\u2019s next priority needs to be replacing Fire Station 6 in Olivenhain, and after that it can revisit the Fire Station 1 issue, he said.<\/p>\n
Participants at Wednesday\u2019s ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new, temporary Fire Station 1 participate in a traditional fire truck \u201cpush-in\u201d event. (Barbara Henry \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Some 70 people attended Wednesday\u2019s ceremony, including at least a dozen firefighters, plus city elected officials and community members. Before attendees rolled up their sleeves and began to push the truck into its new home, the mayor, deputy mayor and fire chief spoke to the crowd.<\/p>\n
Fire Chief Josh Gordon praised his firefighters for their patience, noting that they\u2019ve been doubling up in rooms at other stations since the city\u2019s old Fire Station 1 was forced to close in October 2024. Built in 1957, that structure was ordered closed after inspectors found it had seismic structural deficiencies.<\/p>\n
Though it was an aging masonry building, it was home to many memories \u201cand leaving it was sad,\u201d Gordon said as he recalled the historic photos on the walls and the retired firefighters stopping by to say goodby during the move-out period.<\/p>\n
City officials considered a number of temporary replacement sites, but ultimately decided to use part of the arts center parking lot. In addition to being city-owned land, that site was selected because it, like the old station, was in the downtown coastal region west Interstate 5.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt gives our crews a safe, functional place to start every shift, (and) respond quickly to one of the busiest areas of our city, and that is our downtown corridor,\u201d Gordon said.<\/p>\n
Deputy Mayor Jim O\u2019Hara called the new station a \u201cfunctional workspace\u201d in \u201cone of the most active areas of Encinitas,\u201d while the mayor noted that it took him 40 minutes to get to the new station from the city\u2019s far eastern Olivenhain region due to traffic congestion and that\u2019s why it\u2019s necessary to have a fire station west of the freeway.<\/p>\n
Firefighters already have moved into the new station, Gordon said. It\u2019s currently staffed with three firefighters per shift, but an ambulance crew may be added at a later point, he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Encinitas celebrated the grand opening of a new, temporary fire station Wednesday on the Pacific View Arts Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138427,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,4601,23,100,3054,74,84,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-138426","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-encinitas","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-north-county","13":"tag-san-diego","14":"tag-san-diego-county","15":"tag-san-diego-headlines","16":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}