Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Clark stands near a control panel on the fire engine that officially becomes the property of the new Station 15 at Sasebo Naval Base's Harioshima Ordnance Facility. (Greg Tyler / S&S)
Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Clark stands near a control panel on the fire engine that officially becomes the property of the new Station 15 at Sasebo Naval Base's Harioshima Ordnance Facility. (Greg Tyler / S&S)
Shunsuke Matsuo, the skilled technician firefighters say can rig or repair anything, searches for the just right gadget among his tools on Tuesday afternoon while finishing some of the final wiring and other projects at Station 15. (Greg Tyler / S&S)
Chief Dispatcher Takahiko Tsutsui scans through some instructions with Firfighter Ryoichi Fujita in preparation for the grand opening. (Greg Tyler / S&S)
Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Clark climbs aboard and takes a closer look at the stationary bicycle that is just one of the heavy-duty pieces of exercise equipment located in the workout center at Station 15. (Greg Tyler / S&S)
Eleven firefighters and this fire engine officially become the first occupants of the new 5,000-square-foot Station 15 built at Sasebo Naval Base's Harioshima Ordnance Facility. (Greg Tyler / S&S)
HARIOSHIMA ORDNANCE FACILITY, Japan — Sasebo Naval Base’s Fire Department will officially open the new Station 15 next week.
A grand-opening ceremony is slated for 11 a.m. Monday and will feature a ribbon cutting at the new 5,000-square-foot station.
Firefighters, invited guests and other base personnel will attend, some to see the recently completed station for the first time, Assistant Fire Chief Jerry Clark said.
The event also will include taste-bud-scalding “umpteen-dozen-alarm” chili cooked by the $750,000 station’s 11-member crew in the firehall’s kitchen. Cool drinks also are planned.
After the traditional ribbon snipping, Sasebo Naval Base Commander Capt. Michael James will offer comments ushering the new fire station into its operational mode.
“The new station and the firefighters attached here maintain readiness 24/7 utilizing two shifts,” Clark said. “Even though the building has two large stalls for fire engines, this station will function as a single-engine company for the foreseeable future.”
Harioshima Ordnance Facility, a small waterfront U.S. Navy installation that stores, maintains and provides fleet ammunition, has few visitors because of its isolated locale, Clark said.
Station 15 was funded under a slightly different process than most structures on U.S. bases in Japan.
“Almost all new buildings are built and paid for by the Japan Defense Facilities Administration Agency, but this time we handled the entire project,” Clark said.
Seabee construction work accounted for about $500,000 of the total project, he said, adding: “Then we outfitted the firehouse with everything else needed inside and spent about another [$250,000] on that.”
The new station replaces a former one at the Harioshima Ordnance Facility, closed because it was in disrepair.
