DELAND, Fla. – A surge in emergency calls prompted DeLand city leaders to invest nearly $1 million in upgrading and expanding ,, a move officials say will better protect one of the city’s fastest-growing areas.
Fire Chief Todd Allen said he noticed call volumes began climbing as new residential and commercial development on the east side of the city.
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“In this area, we’ve had a lot of expansion and a lot of growth, along this fourth corridor and Victoria Park area. So, a lot of new additions coming in and still building out. So, we saw the call volumes start to spike about two years ago,” Allen said.
The DeLand City Commission approved the $975,372 project based on data showing the increasing demand for services.
Planning for the project began in 2022, and funding for the architectural design was secured in the 2023–24 fiscal year budget and construction funding was secured the following fiscal year.
Now, six months after construction began, the new and improved station is finally done.
The upgrades include individual sleeping quarters for better rest, separate areas for firefighter equipment and decontamination to reduce carcinogens and cancer risk, and enough space to house both a ladder truck and an engine that are fully staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Before the expansion, the department sometimes struggled to keep up with overlapping calls.
“Out in this area, we were seeing some concurrent calls, which means that when somebody calls 911, the station is through that, and you have to wait longer for another crew to come in from another part of town,” Allen said.
The expanded facility now provides the capacity needed to respond more quickly and effectively.
“So, we’ve been able to really expand the service to this area to make sure that we’re ready not just for today, but as we continue to evolve and continue to grow out of this,” Allen said.
Firefighter Justin Bass, who has been with the department for 12 years and now calls Station 83 home, has seen the department’s growth firsthand.
“When I first started, there’s one company out here, we had one truck, we had one apparatus, and we had, like, a little rescue truck downtown. Since then we’ve had two, sometimes three trucks downtown running, and now the second edition out here, it’s calls have definitely increased over the years. And I feel like we’re doing a good job,” Bass said.
The upgrades are only the beginning. The DeLand Fire Department is still tracking call data in hopes of expanding even more.
“We’re continuing to grow throughout our city so that the city is in the process of purchasing another piece of property for another station just outside of the downtown,” Allen explained.
“It’s a service gap that we see right now in that part of the city, and then also draw some of the call volume that we have down in our downtown out. So we’re working through that process right now, and we hope to have that property purchased in the next few months.”