COUNTRY PLACE FIREHOUSE SERVES CARROLLWOOD

By STEPHEN HAMMILL

The members of Company 42 are still getting used to their new home.

The 6,000 square-foot building, which opened Oct. 1 of last year, houses Tampa’s newest fire engine company. The station serves communities near Carrollwood Village plus homes and businesses along Ehrlich, Hutchison and Anderson roads, as well as the surrounding areas.

Country Place Fire Station, Paramedic Engine Company 42 is located at 5209 Ehrlich Road in Tampa, about one mile west of Dale Mabry Highway. The station is one of three that have recently been put into service in the Carrollwood/Northdale area in order to match the burgeoning population.

“Our goal is to have a 5-minute response time for our stations,” said Jim Glass, driver and engineer for Company 42. Glass has been a professional firefighter for 10 years, and was a volunteer fireman for six years before that. Station 42 is a paramedic engine company, meaning its firefighters are trained in advanced life support (ALS).

“We’re ALS certified, so we can administer the life-saving drugs people may need,” Glass said. “We’ve already got them on IV so by the time the ambulance comes, we just transfer them over.”

The company of Country Place 42 comprises transfers from the Westchase fire station. Station captain Anthony Escobia said the call load for some of the older stations nearby was too great, which created the need for the new facility.

“A nine, 10, 11-minute response time to someone having a heart attack is no good,” he said.

The station is responsible for a series of one-square-mile blocks, four of them in all, which jut out from the station’s base across from Ben Hill Middle School.
“We’re averaging about three calls a day here,” Glass said. Since Jan. 1, they have responded to 172 calls in all. He said it all comes down to response time, the most critical factor for a fire station.

“That way, we can bring ALS, the drugs; everything is on the scene in five or six minutes,” he said.

Currently, four full-time firefighters staff station 42 during a given shift. There’s one truck, with plans to add a ladder truck in the next three years. The new home contains nine private rooms for firefighters to sleep in, in accordance with guidelines set by the National Fire Protection Association, plus a workout room and spacious lounge area.

The Country Place station is the 42nd fire station launched by Hillsborough County. Northdale station 41 opened in August of last year.
“By 2015, we’d like to have 80 stations going,” Glass said. There are already plans to secure three more stations next year.

Glass said the types of emergencies a firehouse responds to can vary significantly from one station to another, with many stations in the northeast regions dealing in high call volumes from elderly-care facilities.

For more information about Hillsborough County’s fire station, visit http://www.hillsboroughcounty.org/firerescue.