New $7 Million Fire Station 51 and Sheriff Substation on County Road 305 a Step Closer to Construction

Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported the cost of the station at $4.5 million and listed a previous design firm.

Flagler County Fire Rescue’s new Fire Station 51 is one step closer to construction later this year as the county’s planning board recommended approval of its site plan to the County Commission. The commission is expected to ratify the decision within weeks, clearing the way for construction.

The building will replace Fire Station 51 in Espanola. Built in 1991, the 3,350-square-foot building on half an acre, in the right of way of County Road 13, is cramped and outdated. According to a county strategic plan issued four years ago, the facility was built as a volunteer station and does not meet life safety or fire codes.




Flagler County government bought the 26-acre, agricultural grassland property at 245 County Road 305, including a 13,000-square-foot barn, for $570,000 in 2017. The site is just south of State Road 100. The red barn will remain. A cell tower also rises on the property. The station is expected to provide swifter coverage for Daytona North, or the Mondex, and areas of western Bunnell. Flagler County took over Bunnell’s fire services in 2018, after the sustained efforts of then-Bunnell City Commissioner Elbert Tucker, a long-time resident and farmer on the west side whose health has since declined. (Naming the new fire station for him would not be out of place.)

The county appropriated $4.5 million for construction from the general fund three years ago. The cost of the project has increased since. Schenkel Shultz of Winter Park designed the new station. Entry and exit will be from two points on County Road 305 with a horseshoe-shaped one-way flow. The 15,000 square-foot fire station will have three bays–for an engine, an attack truck and a rescue, or ambulance.

It’ll sleep six firefighters. There’ll be a decontamination room, a kitchen, a lounge, two offices, a fitness room, a dining room, three restrooms and a laundry facility, plus a satellite sheriff’s office, with 23 parking spaces, and a water storage and loading area. The site will accommodate an additional building in the future, on the east side of the fire station.

The fully-engineered site plan means that the project doesn’t need to be re-submitted to the county’s Technical Review Committee. But the recommendation must be ratified by the County Commission. Once permits are secured, which should be shortly, the project will start construction with no further regulatory stops. The fire station will not serve as a shelter of any sort during emergencies, except for its personnel.