Ribbon Cutting Ceremony Planned for Palm Bay Fire Rescue Fire Station 5
Palm Bay Fire Rescue’s new Station 5 will serve as an operations base for lifesaving and fire rescue services in southeast Palm Bay.
PALM BAY, FLORIDA – The City of Palm Bay is excited to announce the opening of the new Fire Station 5, located at 1525 Foundation Park Drive SE. A ribbon cutting ceremony will be held at the Station on Friday, December 18th at 11:30am. The event is open to the public and members of the media. Attendees are encouraged to wear face masks and practice social distancing.
The new Fire Station 5 facility serves as a replacement for the modular station at 37 San Filippo Drive SE that opened in 1998. The reintroduction of Fire Station 5 brings Palm Bay to a total of six stations, providing additional coverage and enhanced response times across the city’s 88-square miles. Firefighters operating out of Station 5 will provide lifesaving and fire rescue services to southeast Palm Bay and the I-95 corridor at Malabar Road.
Station 5 will also function as the official fire training grounds for Palm Bay Fire Rescue, which will allow the department to conduct more frequent trainings on a wide variety of skills, while saving the City more than $10,000 a year in training facility rental fees. The 3-acre parcel also provides space for expansion to accommodate future training needs.
The acquisition and construction of Fire Station 5 was funded through a combination of City general fund dollars, fire impact fees, and Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding. In early 2019, the City’s Community Development Advisory Board made a recommendation to City Council to award $780,299 in CDBG funding for the acquisition of the property and existing 6,400 square-foot building for Fire Station 5. CDBG funding was also awarded to acquire apparatuses and equipment for use by Station 5 firefighters, to include $473,715.89 for Fire Engine 5 and related equipment, $280,149.44 for Water Tender 5 and related equipment, and $8,155.53 for the purchase of lifesaving equipment.
