The new $4.1 million firehouse at the Peninsula at Bayonne Harbor began serving the city when it dispatched vehicles to a second fire involving the Bayonne Medical Center roof at about 8 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 31, a fire official said.
The fire was extinguished by a roofer using a dry chemical extinguisher, according to Fire Chief Gregory Rogers.
The one-alarm was contained quickly. An investigator was still determining the fire’s cause at the beginning of last weekend.
“As of this morning they’ll be responding from that location,” Rogers said of the firehouse on Chosin Few Avenue. “It’s a soft opening. It’s giving them an opportunity to iron out anything or things that may arise.”
The facility, whose construction began in 2012, will likely officially open in a week or two, officials said. The city is waiting to hold a ceremony that will involve federal legislators.
The building of the new firehouse was mainly funded through a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant of $3.5 million. The other $550,000 was the matching share for the project paid by the city, according to Rogers.
Rogers stressed that although the firehouse was “just a little behind schedule,” the project is still coming in within budget.
The four-bay, 10,000-square-foot firehouse is now home to Squad 5 and Rescue 1.
Mayor James Davis said the new structure is the first new firehouse in Bayonne since the City Hall facility built in the 1970s. Rogers said the Peninsula facility is the first specifically dedicated firehouse in the city in nearly 100 years.
Nine responders will staff the firehouse on a regular basis, Rogers said. Three others are assigned to the training school facility at the site, with the firehouse immediately becoming the primary training center for the city fire department.
“We’re going to really start using it now,” Roger said. The firehouse can accommodate 25 firefighters and trainees. The new site is more conducive to outdoor training purposes than the one previously used by the department because of its larger parking lot.
“We’re all very excited” about the upcoming official opening, Rogers said.
The department had operated a temporary, tented structure for the last five years, one that was very expensive to maintain, city officials said.
The new station allows for the storing of a lot of special apparatus, including the department’s new foam tender truck, used for fighting petrochemical fires. Water rescue and technical rescue trailers will also be stored there.
The firehouse has all the “bells and whistles” of modern facilities, including high-quality heating and air handling systems, according to Rogers.
The centerpiece of the new structure is its iconic tower, which houses the watch and control rooms.
“It’s like the greeting center of the fire station,” Rogers said.
Another advantage of the new facility is that it is built to accommodate both male and female personnel. This is now important as Bayonne welcomed its first woman firefighter to the department last week.
The parking lot also holds up to about two dozen cars.
E-mail joepass@hudsonreporter.com.