CLAY COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Clay County is responding to explosive population growth with its first new fire station in more than 25 years, part of a broader $65 million investment in public safety improvements.<\/p>\n
County officials gathered Thursday to mark the start of construction on what will be the new Station 1, located off Brannan Mill Boulevard, north of Old Jennings Road. The project represents a significant additional to the county\u2019s emergency response capabilities.<\/p>\n
County officials gather at the future site of Station 1 in Clay County. (News4JAX)<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been exponential,\u201d Clay County Fire Chief Lorin Mock said, describing the area\u2019s growth. \u201cI\u2019ve been here almost 16 years and we\u2019ve almost seen those service numbers double over that time. We were running about 15,000 calls a year. We\u2019re now well up over 30,000 calls per year.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new station will serve the central part of Clay County, a rapidly urbanizing area along the State Road 23 and Blanding Boulevard corridors. Mock said the position near the expressway was carefully chosen to maximize emergency response effectiveness.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce 220 is reopened with the bridge connection,\u201d he said. \u201cThe men and women out of this location can get almost anywhere in the county in a very short period of time. It\u2019s a perfect location to build a new station.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials unveil new rendering for Clay County fire station. (Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.)<\/p>\n
The expansion isn\u2019t limited to just one location. Station 22 is also being relocated to County Road 220 near Arena Road, with both construction projects happening simultaneously.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are being constructed by the same group and the construction is concurrent,\u201d Mock said. \u201cWe wanted to celebrate the opportunity with the community that these new facilities were going into service hopefully by the end of this coming year.\u201d<\/p>\n
To address this growth, the county commission has approved a $65 million investment for public safety improvements. The funding will support both new locations and strategic relocations of existing fire stations.<\/p>\n
The chief said the new facilities will help manage increasing service demands, particularly with the rise in multi-family housing developments in the area.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we open [Station 1], we plan to add an additional engine company so we will see even more personnel come in to help offset the load,\u201d Mock said. \u201cBut you just have to drive around here to understand that that isn\u2019t changing\u2014the load is growing.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he hopes to have both projects complete by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLAY COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 Clay County is responding to explosive population growth with its first new fire station…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3487,41182,41184,41185,41188,41187,41186,41183,116,118,117,41189],"class_list":["post-71891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-clay-county","tag-clay-county-emergency-services","tag-clay-county-infrastructure","tag-community-safety","tag-county-development","tag-emergency-response-times","tag-fire-rescue-expansion","tag-fire-station-construction","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-new-fire-station-locations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}