By Coral Gables Gazette staff
Coral Gables Fire Station 2 will disappear beneath a termite tent for three days this week, but city officials say firefighters, paramedics and emergency vehicles assigned there will remain in service throughout the treatment.
The station at 525 South Dixie Highway will be tented from Thursday, Aug. 13, through Saturday, Aug. 15, as part of scheduled termite treatment. Fire apparatus and personnel normally based at the station will be temporarily relocated while the building is inaccessible, according to a city announcement Monday.
The city says residents should not expect any interruption in fire-rescue or emergency medical coverage.
Three days under the tent
The treatment is part of Coral Gables’ ongoing maintenance program for public buildings, according to the city.
Residents and motorists traveling along South Dixie Highway may see the fire station enclosed by a protective tent during the work. The city characterized the project as routine building maintenance rather than a response to an emergency or public-safety problem. Residents do not need to take any action.
What will change temporarily is where Station 2’s crews and equipment begin their calls.
The city said the relocation of personnel and apparatus has been planned to preserve existing response capabilities and service levels but did not identify in its announcement where the Station 2 crews or vehicles will be stationed during the three-day treatment.
Coral Gables fire stations operate around the clock, 365 days a year. The Fire Department provides fire suppression as well as advanced and basic life-support medical service, transport, rescue operations and other emergency services.
One of four stations serving the city
Station 2 is one of four fire stations now operating in Coral Gables.
Station 1 is part of the Public Safety Building at 2151 Salzedo St.; Station 2 is on South Dixie Highway; Station 3 operates at 11911 Old Cutler Road; and the city’s newest station, Fire House 4, opened this year on Sunset Drive.
The addition of Fire House 4 expanded the department’s coverage south of the Gables Waterway, an area that previously had a roughly five-mile distance between Stations 2 and 3. The new station was designed in part to reduce those response distances.
That four-station network gives the department additional flexibility while the South Dixie Highway facility is temporarily unavailable.
Station 2 underwent major renovation five years ago
The termite treatment comes several years after a major overhaul of Station 2.
The city completed a full renovation of the facility in fiscal 2021, along with an 11,860-square-foot, two-story addition. The expanded station added four apparatus bays on the ground floor, training rooms and a firefighter gym upstairs and a rescue training tower. A 12,600-square-foot trolley maintenance building also was constructed as part of the broader project.
The project had been budgeted at approximately $10.5 million when it was under construction in 2019.
The station remains a working 24-hour public-safety facility as well as a location residents regularly encounter for city programs. It has served, for example, as a collection site for city relief and holiday drives.
For this week, however, the building itself will be off limits while the termite treatment is underway.
The city’s message to residents is that the sight of a tent covering a fire station should not be mistaken for a station closure: the building will be temporarily unavailable, but the crews and emergency equipment assigned to it will remain operational elsewhere until they can return.
