Vero Lake Estates Property Owners

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY —Susan Thomasson, head of Vero Lake Estates’ push to get a new fire station, shook her head in disbelief Thursday as county fire officials said they couldn’t justify the expense — even if firefighters take an average eight minutes to arrive there in an emergency.

“They’re talking about improving response times where they’re already covered and leaving us with response times 50 percent higher than average,” she said. “It makes no sense.”

Vero Lake Estates, a large unincorporated area southwest of County Roads 512 and 510, has 2,600 homes among 4,788 lots. Firefighters respond to it from the Sebastian station, 6.4 miles away, or the Fellsmere station, 7 miles away.

Prompted partly by Thomasson’s concerns, the county Emergency Services District Advisory Committee in November asked Emergency Services Director John King to identify his three most-urgent locations for new fire stations.

In response Thursday, King pointed to the intersections of Fourth Street at 43rd Avenue — so far delayed by budget woes — and State Road 60 at 66th Avenue for two new stations. But in light of the recession and falling county revenues, he said, he declined to identify a third location.

“These stations are probably not going to be built anytime soon, unless we see rapid (residential) development, so I’m reluctant to suggest where a third site should be,” King told the committee.

“In 10 or 15 years, things could change a lot,” he added. “Vero Lake Estates and Fellsmere could have a rapid population explosion, but perhaps not. Maybe another location would have the greater need by then.”

The county has 12 stations now, having built its newest one recently at 49th Street and 35th Avenue in Gifford.

Budget Director Jason Brown said it costs about $2 million to buy land and build a station, plus an additional $1.6 million a year in salary and benefits to provide it with a staff of fire fire-medics for an engine and an ambulance. He said the county could afford the new Gifford station by using a fire engine equipped with advanced life-support medical gear, rather than a separate engine and ambulance. That allowed the county to have only three fire-medics at $1 million, Brown said.

Meanwhile, Brown projected dropping property values could mean a reduction of up to $3.6 million next year for the county Emergency Services District. That area includes the entire county except Indian River Shores, which has its own Public Safety Department.

BY CONTRAST

Indian River County fire officials picked their two most-urgent sites for new fire stations based on the number of emergency calls and response time from existing stations in the 2008-09 budget year:

Fourth Street at 43rd Avenue: The area had 845 fire-rescue calls with an average response time of 6 minutes and 42 seconds.

State Road 60 at 66th Avenue: This area had 761 calls with an average 6-minute response.

By contrast, Vero Lake Estates had 257 calls, with an average response of 8 minutes.

The county’s average response time was 5 minutes and 24 seconds.

Source: County Assistant Fire Chief Brian Burkeen