By Ed Offley
A six-year, multi-million-dollar program to transform the PCB Fire Rescue Department is nearing completion.
Contractors are tentatively set to finish construction of the final pair of three new fire stations in April developed by the city since 2020 to replace the department’s once-aging infrastructure, Chief Ray Morgan told PCB Life.
“These new stations are a continuation of the efforts of the city to improve facilities and plan for continued growth,” Morgan said. “The replacement of Station 31 and Station 32 were paramount in that the existing stations were undersized for our staffing and not storm rated, causing us to move response assets off the ‘island’ during the most major storm events.”
Fire Station 31, located at the city administrative complex on US 98 and SR 79, is a 12,680-square-foot structure replacing a 31-year-old station at that site that was demolished last year. Its cost is $6.4 million, including an accessory building and temporary living quarters.
Fire Station 32, located on Hutchison Boulevard between Alf Coleman Road and Grand Panama Circle, is a 12,247-square-foot structure replacing a 1985 station building a mile east near the Walmart store. Its cost is $7.24 million.
“These new Stations will allow us to properly house and protect the men and women of PCBFR so they can do the great work of protecting our community,” Morgan added.
The new structures are designed to withstand Category 5 hurricane winds. They are large enough that the department can now put all of its vehicles under cover, Busch noted. They have the capacity to house the department’s six fire engines and one ladder truck, as well as several dozen support vehicles, ATVs and trailers.
When operational, the stations will join Fire Station 30 off Nautilus Boulevard, which opened in 2020. The city last year opened a four-story training tower at the Station 30 site. Built at a cost of $1.3 million, the facility can be used to train firefighters in a variety of scenarios, simulating residential or commercial blazes, or more complex scenarios including confined space rescue and high-rise fire response, Busch said.
“This facility provides realistic layouts, props, and account for evolutions performed under live fire conditions, which is a first of its kind asset on Panama City Beach.” Said Deputy Chief Justin Busch.
City Council’s decision to enact a Fire Assessment in 2018 made the modernization possible, Busch said. The current $108.6 million city budget includes a projected $7.4 million revenue from the special assessment. “That really kicked things off,” he added.
The department has grown to twice the size it was in 2014, with a total of 64 employees, compared with 32 back then. It staffs 54 line firefighters, up from 30 a decade ago. Each fire engine has an on-duty crew of three firefighters, with four assigned to the ladder truck.
In addition, its Beach Safety Division – organized in 2019 – now has 20 fulltime employees.
A separate Fire Inspection Division, staffed by four certified fire inspectors, conducts annual safety inspections, plans reviews, short term-rental inspections, and helps coordinate all school safety plans and responses.
With an annual operating budget of about $12 million – nearly four times the $3.3 million budgeted in 2014, the Fire Rescue Department can meet the challenge of responding to nearly 7,000 calls for service each year, Busch said.
