LAKELAND - No one was hurt or killed when a fire leveled a home in Carillon Lakes recently. But residents say if there is another house fire there, people may not be as lucky.
Residents of Carillon and other nearby gated communities have been asking the city of Lakeland for a fire station for years, but haven't been able to get one.
"As a taxpayer, I am appalled that we don't have that protection, and we have never had that protection," Pam Damewood, President of the Carillon Homeowners Association, told FOX 13.
The closest fire station is more than five miles away. It took firefighters twelve minutes to get to Carillon, twice as long as it would have taken them to get to almost any other area of the city.
Carillon homeowners point out that they are not the only ones at risk. There are other gated subdivisions nearby, as well as the corporate headquarters of Geico and Publix.
The city plans to build a fire station in the area, but not for another six years.
"If the city wanted to move that up, we would have to rob Peter to pay Paul and some services may suffer," said Lakeland's spokesman, Kevin Cook.
Residents of Carillon say time is of the essence. They say they need a station now, and they plan to make their case before city commissioners on Monday.
Fire Station Petition
A fire destroyed a home at 3417 Fiddle Leaf Way on Sunday morning February 26.
Sign a petition that the Board will present to the city commissioners to voice your displeasure about the lack of a fire station in our area and a slow response time for fire and EMS. Representatives are circulating the petitions-if you are not contacted, please stop in at the clubhouse to sign one in the POA office.
