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Vineyard's new fire station is pictured Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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The interior of Vineyard's new fire station is pictured Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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The interior of Vineyard's new fire station is pictured Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald

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Vineyard’s newest public safety building puts the “house” in firehouse.

The city’s first fire station, at 226 W. 8 South, is built quite literally like a residential house, with a red brick exterior, seven bedrooms and an open floor plan in the kitchen and living room spaces.

City Manager Eric Ellis said people have already expressed interest in buying it as a family home, and Orem Assistant Fire Chief Shaun Hirst said it’s a legitimate option if a larger station were to be built in the city in the future.

“We were looking at building a temporary structure, and it would have cost a couple hundred thousand dollars less to build that, but it would have been worthless down the road,” Hirst said. “With this, we think we can actually make money on it, return it to the community and reinvest it into a fire station.”

Beginning in January, though, it will be a fully serviceable fire station that is up to commercial code. Owned by Vineyard City and operated by Orem Fire, it will serve as an Orem satellite location and cut response times to many calls in Vineyard by “more than half,” Hirst said.

According to Ellis, the city set a $1.5 million budget for the station with a $200,000 contingency amount, and after extra technology was placed into the house, they landed on budget at $1.7 million.

“By comparison, fire stations right now around the state and beyond are being built for $20 million plus,” he said. “And so if we need a second one or third one, we could build five of them and still be less than the cost of one full commercial fire station.”

Twelve firefighters will be assigned to the station, with four working per shift. Two will be full time on an on-site ambulance and two on an on-site fire engine, which will be housed in a large garage to the west of the main house, Hirst said.

Ellis said 18 firefighters will eventually be assigned to the station, with six available personnel at all times.

The partnership with Orem and Lindon “works beautifully” for Vineyard, according to Ellis, because it has the support of multiple neighboring fire stations whenever there is a fire, and costs are split between each city.

“You get the support of all those firefighters and it just ends up costing the city less to share those costs,” he said. “So it has been a fantastic relationship to date. We look forward to that continuing long term.”

Hirst said the additional station will help Orem Fire do its job better.

“Being able to have a faster, quicker response out here is huge,” he said. “Plus we’re adding another station, adding four more personnel to our department daily. So that augments what we can do on the fire too. We can fulfill one more role faster than we could prior.”