L ocated along the banks of the Indian River in East Central Florida, the Cocoa Fire Department was organized in 1920 by volunteers operating out of one fire station that was located in the historic downtown area. Then Cocoa was a small town of nearly 1,400 people. It wasn’t until 1959 that the department hired its first career Fire Chief. Since then the City has grown to close to 19,000 residents. Today, the department provides fire protection and prevention, firefighting, rescue, Advanced Life Support and Hazardous Materials response capabilities. The department serves the community from three fire stations that were quickly growing outdated as they were built between 40 and 60 years ago. Beginning in 2013, Cocoa set out with a goal to improve the fire service for our growing community. This included increasing the number of solo paramedics to enhance ALS service. In 2015 and 2016, Cocoa purchased new life-safety equipment, a new ladder apparatus, two new fire engines, a MERV, a new District Chief vehicle, a new Rescue Vehicle, and a Fire Administration Vehicle. Also, a relocation analysis was done for our existing fire stations. The goal was to have an aggregate four minute response time for the entire City to include our new growth areas in the northwest sections of the community. This report evaluated five years of calls for service for the City of Cocoa. It showed the need to renew and replace our existing stations due to growth. The analysis also showed that the current stations did not meet ADA or OSHA requirements and were in need of significant maintenance and repairs. The stations also needed to accommodate both male and female firefighters with separate facilities. A number of community meetings and presentations were held to discuss the relocation of the fire stations within the community. The first station completed was Station 1, which includes the Fire Administration offices. The Grand Opening Ceremony, building dedication and truck housing was held last month to a great crowd of over 100 residents, employees and elected officials. Station 2 and Station 3 are set to be complete in the April/May timeframe. Each of these stations will now meet the National Fire Protections Agency response time standards of four minutes or less to the entire City, 90% of the time. Today, the City of Cocoa is headed by the 2016 Space Coast Fire Chief of the Year, Chief Gene Prince and the 2016 Space Coast Chief Officer of the Year, Deputy Chief Jonathon Lamm. Chief Prince joined the department in 2015, after 30 years of service to the Gainesville Fire Department, to spearhead this growing Department. Shortly after, Lamm joined the department from Clay County Fire Rescue. FLORIDA FIRE SERVICE April 2018 22 April 2018 FFS.QXD 4/10/18 1:53 PM Page 22