Derek Tran

Fountain Valley civic leaders gathered Thursday to celebrate a $2-million boost in funding, provided by a U.S. legislator, in the city’s campaign for a new fire station.

A presentation check was handed over in a ceremony at Fire Station No. 1 on Bushard Street, directly across from Fountain Valley High and one of two fire stations in town.

U.S. Rep. Derek Tran (D-Cypress), who earmarked the funds, was joined at Thursday’s event by Fountain Valley firefighters and city officials in front of a fire engine parked in the station’s apparatus bay.

“A new fire station means faster response times, better equipment and better working conditions for our public safety heroes,” Tran said. “That’s why I fought so hard to secure the $2 million back to Fountain Valley to build the state-of-the-art fire station.

“This is so much more than a big check. It’s really an investment in training and efficiency and, most importantly, in saving lives,” he continued. “It is a guarantee that our hard-earned dollars are coming right back to our cities, to our neighborhoods and to our families.”

Tracy McQuaid, the widow of former Fountain Valley fire chief Bill McQuaid, attended the proceedings. The event’s speakers — Tran, Mayor Jim Cunneen, and Fire Chief Chris Nigg — all took the opportunity to acknowledge her late husband’s role in advocating for funding at the federal level. McQuaid said her husband made multiple trips to Washington, D.C., to help advance the project.

City Manager Maggie Le said officials extended an invitation to McQuaid, knowing improved fire department facilities were a top priority for her husband before his death in July 2025.

The former chief was honored with a memorial bench at Huntington State Beach — near the site of his off-duty death — in May.

“Our late fire chief, [Bill] McQuaid, had put a lot of time and effort into the grant opportunity,” Le said, adding how touching it was to be joined by his wife.

In April 2023, the city spent $8.125 million to purchase a 2.86-acre property at 17101 Bushard St. as offiicals considered replacing Fire Station No. 1, built on a 0.6-acre lot in 1958.

The former site of engineering firm SPEC Services, the property remains a contender for the building of a new fire station, but fire officials plan to use data provided from a community risk assessment and standards of cover study to better understand the department’s needs.

During a June 2 meeting, the Fountain Valley City Council approved a $94,72 contract with AP Triton, LLC for a fire department community risk assessment, standards of cover and strategic plan.

Nigg noted the analysis will take into account the high volume of calls for service and future demands on the fire department’s resources likely to result from high-density housing developments planned for the city in the coming years.

“Are we prepared to meet that demand for service, not only from a volume standpoint, but also from the risk profile standpoint?” Nigg posed Thursday.

“Is what we’re doing now sustainable? Are we truly meeting what the community deserves from us? That not only includes our department, but it also includes our automatic aid agreements and that true countywide interoperability that Orange County is so good at.

“That will provide us that science-driven methodology to tell us that, ‘Hey, you know what, you’re doing it right,’ or, ‘You need to be prepared for growth in your department, because you have development coming in, target hazards coming in, and you need to make sure you’re seeing those things.”