HAINES CITY, Fla. — The Haines City Fire Department is getting more calls for help than ever before.
“The growth as far as call volume has increased drastically. We have a lot of growth towards all areas. There are new subdivisions constantly going in,” said Jacob Jimenez, Battalion Chief.
Having been a Haines City Firefighter for nearly two decades, Jimenz has experienced the rapid growth firsthand. He said in 2024, they ran more than 7,000 calls. That is 300 more calls than the year before.
Haines City only has two fire stations, so Polk County Fire Rescue steps in to cover the north section of the city.
“We’re unable to cover those calls. Not to say that it does not have coverage, but Haines City is not able to. With that third station we’ll be able to move in there and cover a lot of that area and take over running those calls,’ Jimenez said.
Construction of a third fire station is now underway. It is part of a new emergency operations center being built between US Highway 27 and FDC Grove Road.
“The new station has doors that open like accordions. They open much faster than these doors do. These doors roll up slow. The alarms for the firefighters are going to be a little less noisy,” said Interim Fire Chief Patrick Competelli.
The state-of-the-art facility will meet the increasing demand for emergency services in the area. During last year's storms, emergency operations were conducted out of a cramped city hall.
“So you’ll have public works there. The fire department, police department. So when we get the storms, hurricanes, anything like that we’ll be sheltered over there, then we report to the county,” said Competelli.
Construction is expected to be complete by the summer. Contributing to a safer Haines City.
“You know, it might just be time we take a look if HOAs are really even necessary.
Maybe we should just do away with homeowner associations as a whole.”
South Florida lawmaker Rep. Juan Carlos Porras (R-Miami) says it may be time to do away with homeowners associations altogether, as more Floridians speak out about rising fees, costly lawsuits, and even arrests tied to HOA disputes. He said this week that he is considering filing legislation in the next session that would abolish HOAs statewide.
