- November 17, 2024
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Corrected Oct. 31
It used to take about 20 minutes for firefighters and paramedics to make it to calls out in Daytona North. Now, it takes just five, Flagler County Professional Firefighter's Association President Stephen Palmer said.
“It’s surprised people,” he said at an Oct. 25 open house at Fire Station 71 in western Flagler County. “They’re like, ‘Wow, you guys were here quick.’”
The reduced response times are the result of the county opening and staffing Station 71, on County Road 2006 just west of the intersection with County Road 305. The station was reopened Aug. 19. The next nearest station, Palmer said, is Station 51, on County Road 13 in Espanola.
County Commissioner Nate McLaughlin had pressed the county to reopen the station, and attended the open house Oct. 25, where staff members gave tours of the station and provided free blood pressure checks, face painting and games for local children.
“This is a core service that we provide,” McLaughlin said at the event. “To not provide it for this segment of the community was not acceptable. We’re glad to do it.”
The station has a fire engine, a brush truck and an ambulance, and is staffed 24 hours a day by two firefighters per shift, and will soon have a third, Palmer said.
The station only gets about two to four calls a day, “but when you get a call out here, it’s usually something substantial," Palmer said.
The county is also planning a larger fire station to replace Station 71 in the future, Flagler County Spokesman Carl Laundrie said in a county news release.
The online text of this story reflects the following correction: In an Oct. 30 news brief on Page 14, The Observer identified an event held at Fire Station 71 as a "reopening ceremony." The event was, in fact, an open house; the reopening was officially held Aug. 19.
