KAPOLEI — It's a nondescript 2,335-square-foot, one-story building at the end of a cul-de-sac in the Kapolei Business Park. Some of the new homes being built in the surrounding 'Ewa Plains are bigger than that.

But officials who dedicated and blessed the new Kapolei/Makakilo Emergency Medical Services Facility yesterday called the building a significant step for the city's Emergency Services Department.

Built for just less than $1 million with state money next to the Kapolei Fire Station in the business park between downtown Kapolei and Campbell Industrial Park, it houses the paramedic operations for the Kapolei/Makakilo region. For the past four years, the crew has been working out of a trailer between the fire station and the new building.

"You see fire stations, you see police stations ... but we don't have EMS stations," said city Emergency Services Director Libby Char. "Thankfully, this is one, and hopefully in the future, we'll have others up and running. I think that's the trend; I think that's what we need to do is to get more places from where we can run for disasters and just day-to-day uses."

The facility includes a decontamination room, oxygen room, kitchen, lounge area, supply room, dispensary and shower, as well as an office for the district chief who covers the area from Kalihi to Kahuku. Char and Emergency Medical Services Division Chief Patty Dukes said those types of features are handy in dealing with daily operations, but essential when emergency personnel need to hunker down for an extended time during a major event.

"The really nice thing is that there is a shower," Char said. "That is so important because these guys get muddy and bloody and dirty and if there's a disaster, they're going to be here awhile."

Dukes said a Wahiawa facility is under construction, while preliminary work is also under way for a facility on Young Street, where paramedics are currently working out of trailers. EMS is also eyeing a site in Waipi'o.

Kapolei/Makakilo EMS superintendent Arnold Paragoso said he and his staff are happy to move out of their trailer, which is still standing next to the new facility. Paragoso's area runs from Ko Olina to 'Ewa Beach and includes a rapid response ambulance that is stationed at Hawaii Medical Center-West, the former St. Francis Medical Center West.

"The trailer has two rooms and it was pretty cramped in there," Paragoso said, noting that much of the room was used for supply storage. Even though shifts are eight hours, it's not uncommon for paramedics to work double shifts of 16 hours at a time, he said.

"I think having this unit here boosts morale for the whole EMS Division," Paragoso said. "It's a gesture from the city saying hey, we're appreciated."

Mayor Mufi Hannemann said the new EMS facility is also acknowledgement on the city's part of the growth in Kapolei, the so-called "Second City" on O'ahu.

"Today, again, we demonstrate to the people of the west side of O'ahu that we want to make sure that all the services that urban Honolulu is familiar with, that (the people there) have enjoyed for many years, is now available on the west side," Hannemann said.

In 1990, its first full year of operations, the Kapolei/Makakilo EMS unit responded to 808 calls. In 2007, they've so far responded to 1,800 calls, Hannemann said.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.