Representatives for firefighters and emergency medical responders are continuing to press Pasco’s elected leaders and county administration to devote more resources to decrease emergency response times.
The emergency personnel has been taking advantage of the public comments portion of the Pasco County Commission’s meetings to keep the spotlight on the issue.
During the board’s May 3 meeting, Sabrina Koebler, representing Local 4420, focused on “the extreme deficit of stations.”
“I know this isn’t new information,” said Koebler, a captain firefighter at Pasco Fire Rescue. “After all, a couple of years ago, the citizens approved a $147 million bond for the county, $70 million of which was to go to new stations.”
That funding includes five new stations, four rebuilt stations and a training center, she said.
“The stations that we are building are taking an excessive amount of time — longer than anticipated,” she said. “Reportedly, the stations under construction were delayed, supposedly for building material availability.”
Plus, she said the county is building just one station at a time — a pace that’s too slow to keep up with Pasco’s rapid growth.
More stations are needed to reduce the size of the zones that each station serves.
“We are not able to navigate heavy traffic and poor traffic conditions with the current infrastructure, easily and quickly,” she said.
She cited an instance when she was on a call in Holiday and the crew had to wait for an ambulance to arrive from Land O’ Lakes.
It is 17 miles away and it takes as long as 35 minutes to travel that distance during heavy traffic, she said.
“Neighborhoods are being completed at a faster rate than stations are being completed. This is going to cause a problem, obviously,” Koebler said.
“We need stations and we need them quicker than once every 18 months.
“New stations will help alleviate the response times that we’ve continually addressed.
“New stations will continue to alleviate crew burnout, which is becoming an issue,” she added.
“And, new stations will help with our unit utilization, which is something we’ve also discussed.”
She asked why developers aren’t forced to provide fire stations to serve the new subdivisions that are springing up in the county.
“Why we don’t require that is beyond me,” she said.
“Families and children will be moving into these homes. We do not want the headline that a 2 year old, who was not able to breathe, had to wait 18 minutes.
“I don’t want that on my conscience and neither do our guys. Don’t make our firefighters live with that. Don’t make our citizens regret moving here.
“We’re obligated to provide the resources for public safety and that’s what we’re asking that you do. Just help us.
“To us, this is real life. It’s not a news story,” Koebler said.
Published May 11, 2022
