Jacksonville FL Fire Station Cecil Airport Backup 911 Center Firefighters

Sept. 09 -- A new fire station to serve the growing number of homes near Cecil Airport, as well as the businesses in and around the joint civil-military airport and spaceport, will begin construction Wednesday with a city groundbreaking ceremony.

Along with Fire Station 73's four-bay facility is the city's long-awaited backup 911 emergency call center next door, a joint facility for the Jacksonville's Sheriff's Office and Fire and Rescue Department when both are opened next year.

The facilities will be at 5845 Aviation Ave. just south of the Normandy Boulevard and 103rd Street. When completed, the new station will receive the fire engine now at Station 56 next to the runways at the sprawling 23,000-acre Cecil Commerce Center and also get a new rescue unit now housed at Station 17 on Huron Street.

The new fire station means an improvement in the home and business owners' ISO insurance risk rating, which is high within five miles of the airport's existing station, Fire Chief Kurt Wilson said. Engine and rescue response also will be quicker to area homes, he said.

"We were struggling with ISO 10, which basically means no fire protection within five miles," the chief said. "... The call volumes, although it's not a high-volume area, are going up with with crazy growth. The closest other units are (Station 31) Hillman Drive and 103rd Street, and we have units coming from Maxville, which is quite a distance, or at West Beaver Street and Chaffee Road."

City Councilman Randy White, a former deputy fire chief, handles that Westside district and knows how much a fire truck and rescue unit will mean when it opens a half-mile closer to nearby homeowners.

"It was two miles for Station 56 to get to 103rd Street, so Station 73 will decrease response times to any houses. And Station 56's crash trucks will still be on the runways as FAA requires," White said. "It's like getting a quicker response time for free."

Cecil Commerce Center is a combination business park and airport for military and private aircraft including U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Florida Department of Agriculture and Forestry Service, as well as Boeing and Pratt and Whitney maintenance facilities. Florida State College at Jacksonville also houses its aviation program there.

Airport rescue and firefighting coverage is handled now by Fire Station 56 on Aeronautical Way, near the runway intersections south of its control tower. That station will keep its crash trucks to handle aircraft as well as air cargo, Florida Army National Guard aviation and U.S. Coast Guard helicopter units.

The backup 911 center also was needed and made a priority in the mayor's budget, Wilson said.

"JSO's primary center is downtown. Should there be some kind of event, hurricane or flooding, JSO's 911 center is in the same footprint," Wilson said. "JFRD's backup is in a closet off New Kings Road with no computers, and it is not a genuine backup. So we have been fighting for a long time and the mayor made it a priority."

White said Jacksonville's fire department made 155,000 runs last year, with even more dispatched for the Sheriff's Office, so the backup 911 center, in the works since 2002, is a "wonderful thing."

"We don't really have a good backup," White said. "We wanted to get it further away from high winds, and this is a perfect match and gives us a backup to JSO and JFRD."

The City Council approved an interlocal agreement with the Jacksonville Airport Authority to transfer the land to the city, approving $3.78 million for the fire station in late June 2017. A $1 million Florida Department of Transportation grant will assist in the construction. The 911 center will cost another $12 million, funded through the city.

The center will be staffed full-time and also be used for training those who take and dispatch emergency calls.

"Now they can train real time," Wilson said. "And if we have an issue, we flip a switch and there is no loss of service."