- July 12, 2025
The Palm Coast Fire Department responded to over 17,200 calls for service in 2024, reaching 72% of them in under seven minutes.
The department's goal is to respond to at least 85% of calls in less than seven minutes, which is the standard set by the Palm Coast City Council. Fire Chief Kyle Berryhill told the Observer that the lag is because the closest fire station in the Seminole Woods area is the Flagler County airport station.
"That station is in a location where a huge part of its response area - you could never meet our response goal," Berryhill said. "Predictive data shows that the travel distance from the airport down both Belle Terre and Seminole Woods Boulevards...you can barely get a third of the way down in seven minutes."
The problem should be fixed with the new Station 26 in Seminole Woods, Berryhill said, which is currently under construction.
The number of calls fielded by the PCFD has also increased "dramatically" over the years, Berryhill said to the Palm Coast City Council at its May 10 workshop meeting. In 2023, the department received 15,000 calls for service, compared to the 17,200 calls in 2024.
The new Fire Stations 22 and 26 - in the east Palm Coast Parkway and Seminole Woods Boulevard areas of Palm Coast - are under construction and set to be completed in 2022. Despite the new stations, Berryhill said the PCFD budget doesn’t include any new fire personnel requests, as the City Council has already funded the personnel in previous budgets.
While the current Fire Station 22 staff will just move to the new building, Station 26 will have nine Palm Coast firefighters - three per shift - to six Flagler County Fire Rescue paramedics, two per shift.
"They've already given us the staff, and the staff are already in place, which we actually believe is a best practice," Berryhill said.
The department will, however, be replacing two of its fire apparatus trucks in the next budget year. Engine 22 is budgeted to cost $900,000 while Tower 24 is projected to cost $1,900,000.
The PCFD already has the funding available to purchase the two replacement trucks, Berryhill said. And because the department will pay for them in full, he said, the cost of both trucks is $120,000 less.
Of a larger concern is the wait for delivery: it can take between 30-40 months for a purchased engine to be delivered, due to supply chain issues, Berryhill said. However, he said, PCFD was able to "jump the line" by taking over the purchase of a tower someone else started. That not only saves the PCFD "a pretty significant" amount off the Tower 24 replacement costs, but also halves the amount of time the city will need to wait for the replacement, he said.
"We're saving both time and money by having some flexibility," Berryhill said, "and because the City Councils, for years, have committed to saving to keep our fleet in good order."
