Hillsborough County Fire Rescue opened a new fire station in Palm River, marking the completion of a project years in the making to replace an aging facility that officials say had outlived its usefulness. The new Fire Station 15 held its ribbon-cutting Wednesday, giving the community a two-bay facility.
The opening was reported by wtsp.com, which confirmed Hillsborough County Fire Rescue opened the facility in Palm River. According to a project fact sheet from Hillsborough County, the new two-bay station was built to replace the existing Palm River Fire Station No. 15, which the county described as at or near the end of its useful life and outdated in its design.
County records list the project's estimated total cost at $7,185,722, with the construction phase funded through the American Rescue Plan, per the same project fact sheet. The county's estimated schedule had targeted construction completion for mid-2026, and the project was listed in the construction phase within Hillsborough County Commissioner District 3, the document shows.
What the New Station Includes
Beyond the two apparatus bays, the replacement project called for a range of site improvements. Documents obtained by bidnetdirect.com indicate the project included access drives, parking lots, landscaping, storm drainage systems, sidewalks, utilities, a back-up power generator, a fire sprinkler system and a fire alerting system.
There is some ambiguity around the address of the station being replaced. The project fact sheet identifies the existing Palm River Fire Station No. 15 as located at 715 S 58th Street, while a county history page lists Fire Station No. 15 in Palm River at 6212 12th Ave. S. in Tampa.
Part of a Countywide Building Push
The Palm River project is one piece of a broader fire-station construction effort underway across Hillsborough County, according to Tampa Bay Times.
The county's fire-station construction effort is intended to improve emergency response times.
Other projects illustrate the scale of the undertaking. An empty parcel of land in Riverview will soon become home to a new Fire Station 48 to serve one of the county's fastest-growing areas, per the Bay News 9 report. Fire Station 13, a 60-year-old former volunteer station, according to the Tampa Bay Times, is being replaced with an $8.5 million facility at 7313 Ehrlich Road featuring an approximately 7,200-square-foot, three-bay design with seven individual sleeping quarters.
Together, the projects reflect a broader strategy by county officials to modernize fire infrastructure as Hillsborough continues to grow, with Palm River's new station one example of that effort.
