The city's new $9.5 million fire station, which will also serve as the city's Emergency Operations Center, opens next to City Hall in downtown Naples on Wednesday, just in time for the start of hurricane season.
Naples Fire-Rescue Department Chief Pete DiMaria said the station is "critical infrastructure" for the city due to its durability; the building is expected to stand for at least 50 years.
"We built this facility to withstand a Category 5 storm and it also has an EOC, which is built inside of a safe room that could take a direct tornado hit, too," he said. "So we feel like we built a generational building. I think that our kids and their kids may be visiting this station." The fire department has been trying to get approval for a new fire station for more than a decade. The first fire station at the Eighth Avenue property was built in 1945. In 1995, two-thirds of the building was torn down and rebuilt, but it wasn't built to last, said DiMaria, who's been with the department since 1989.