LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — The population in Land O’ Lakes is growing quickly.
“We’re super excited that everyone has found out that Pasco County is an amazing place to live,” said Corey Dierdorff, Public Information Officer for Pasco County Fire Rescue.
With more people moving to the area, comes some unique challenges.
“We want to make sure that as people move the county they’re protected and that the fire rescue is doing the best that they can to protect them,” said Dierdorff.
That’s why Pasco County Fire Rescue is building Fire Station 9, which will serve northern Land O’ Lakes.
“With the population boom going on, for the foreseeable future, we’re going to need to continue to grow as an agency to provide these residents with top-notch and professional fire rescue service,” said Dierdorff.
It’s located right off the Suncoast Parkway and will allow crews to get in and out quickly as they respond to calls county-wide.
“So we’re going to have some specialty units there that will be able to get up and down the Suncoast Expressway to help out with some accidents and stuff,” said Dierdorff.
Currently, the closest fire stations in the area are several minutes away.
“When you call 911 we want to be there as quickly as we possibly can, having that fire station there is going to do that,” said Dierdorff.
Fire station 9 will so help protect firefighters from cancer-causing carcinogens.
“Every day when firefighters run bad medical calls, when they run bad car crashes and are exposed to the fluids off of the cars or you know a house fire where there’s cancer-causing carcinogens, well we’ve found out over the years that the most dangerous part of a fire is not actually the fire, it’s the smoke that it causes and the long term effects that it has on our firefighters,” said Dierdorff.
The new station will feature a hot, warm, and cold design allowing firefighters to decontaminate safely.
“It allows firefighters to come back from a call, get off of a truck, after already being cleaned on scene, come into our warm zone which is a shower area where they’re able to shower. They’re able to wash their clothes, their uniforms, put on a clean set of uniforms, before they even enter the house,” said Dierdorff.
It’s one of the first in the state to do something like this.
Fire Station 9 is expected to be complete in the next nine months.
Once it’s finished, nearby resents will be able to save money on homeowners insurance.
Pasco County Fire Rescue has plans to build three new stations in new service delivery areas within the next couple of years.
There are also plans to rebuild four of their fire stations.
