Tallahassee residents in the Buck Lake area will have a fire station closer to home next year. The Tallahassee Fire Department broke ground today on its 16th station as Leon County’s population continues growing.
Fire fighters say the new station should help them achieve their goal of a 5-minute response time anywhere in the county.
Tallahassee Fire Department spokesman Mike Bellamy says when a child at Buck Lake Elementary had a recent emergency, it took paramedics 10 minutes to arrive.
“We look at now, some models we’ve looked at, responding from this area, we’ll be able to get to Buck Lake Elementary In about 5-to-6 minutes," he says.
Bellamy says 5 minutes makes a huge difference in medical emergencies. He says, if someone’s heart stops, it takes about five minutes of oxygen deprivation for their brain to begin dying. And about 80 percent of calls TFD responds to are medical or car wrecks.
He says the new station is slated to start responding to calls in July of 2015. When it's complete, it will be the county's first LEED-certified station because of solar power and other efficiencies.