DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The main Fire Station No. 1 in Daytona Beach is about to turn 100 years old, and the city says the department has outgrown it. The state just awarded the city a $10 million grant to go toward a new fire station.
The current station No. 1 on Beach Street was built in 1925 and is one of the busiest in all of Volusia County.
“We’ve had to make several modifications just to accommodate things like modern fire apparatus, health and safety, having our gear on the bay floor and lodging – we’re no longer a male dominated field we have females,” said Chief Dru Driscoll.
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Modern, standard fire trucks don’t fit in the garage doors, it’s a bit cramped with the staff size now, and Driscoll said with its location on the Halifax River, it’s prone to taking on water.
“The most important part of the new station is getting off the riverfront, so we don’t experience the tidal flooding,” he said. “Due to recent storms we continually need to evacuate the station which really hampers our operations during the community’s time of need.”
Driscoll said these are all reasons why the city says it’s time for a new fire station and is going to build one about a half mile away on South Ridgewood Avenue. He said they plan to break ground in December and hope to have it built by 2026.
“It’s going to be better because they can pull out, go north, go south, where here they have to negotiate Beach Street and then they have to go east or west,” said Daytona Beach Commissioner Ken Strickland.
Strickland said with the new station more centrally located, response times will quicken, especially with the number of people moving to this area.
As for the old, historic station, he said the city is considering leasing it out, but there is not a set-in-stone decision yet.
“It’s a historic building. We need to preserve it after it’s vacated. That’s a goal of mine to not tear this down, right? However, we’ve got to upgrade the facilities. This is a nice building, but it’s just doesn’t suit our needs anymore,” he said.
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