LAKE COUNTY, Fla. --
Some Lake County homeowners say they pay their fire protection fee, but aren't getting any protection. Residents of Bay Lake do have a county fire station, but no firefighters.
The closest manned station is miles away on Lakeshore Drive in Clermont. Homeowners are afraid that, if a fire starts, their houses would burn down.
"My family came to Florida in 1822. I'm a cracker," said resident Dave Barker. "We're paying as much as everybody else and getting nothing and being told right to our face, you're not gonna get nothing."
Lake County fire station 111 sits in Bay Lake. A fire truck sits in the garage, but the county does not have anyone assigned to the station. When there's a fire, the nearest manned Lake County station is 15 miles away and it can take more than 22 minutes for an engine to get to Bay Lake.
"The time is not acceptable," said Lake County Public Safety Director Gary Kaiser.
Kaiser hopes to add a dozen firefighters this year and put some of them in another unmanned station that's a little closer to Bay Lake. In time, he said, the Bay Lake firehouse will also be manned.
"I would think sometime in the next year or two that we'll be there," he said.
Meanwhile, Bay Lake residents feel at risk. They have a perfectly good fire station with a perfectly good fire truck, but no firefighters.
The Lake County Commission will hold a public hearing on September 11 to raise the county's fire protection fee from $171 a year per homeowner to $197. Residents of Bay Lake plan to be there.
