New Fire Station To Protect Firefighters From Carcinogens

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — Pasco County Fire Rescue hosted a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday for a first-of-its-kind fire station in Tampa Bay.

The new station will be completed in about 10 months at 2951 Seven Springs Blvd., New Port Richey.

Fire Rescue Station 17 will be a two-story, 18,504-square-foot state-of-the-art four-bay fire station that stresses firefighter health and safety. It will include a hot, warm and cold zone design aimed at reducing firefighter cancer rates. The zones will allow firefighters to clean carcinogens off their bodies before they enter the living quarters of the fire station, a new best-practices model in the firefighting industry.

The station will also have larger bays to accommodate specialty apparatus, a built-in 16-member training classroom to support multi-station training, a flex room to house additional firefighters during a major emergency and an advanced station alerting system aimed at improving firefighter wellness.

Fire Station 17 covers 12.6 square miles and serves more than 30,000 residents in the Seven Springs neighborhood of New Port Richey.

This groundbreaking marks the second new station to be paid for by county General Obligation Bonds for Pasco County Fire Rescue.

General Obligation Bonds are mechanisms for counties to fund large-scale infrastructure
projects. They allow the county to borrow money for a project instead of having the funds
available in the current budget. GO bonds must be approved by voters, and allow for an
additional charge on property tax bills to pay the debt service on the bonds.

In April, the county broke ground Fire Station 9 at 11425 Silver Palm Blvd. in Land O' Lakes, the first fire station specially designed to reduce cancer risks for firefighters.

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