Independent study: rebuild Cooper City fire station later; improve dispatch and consider peak-hour EMS instead of second station

An independent study presented to the Cooper City Commission on May 27 concluded that the city's single fire-station deployment provides adequate eight-minute coverage in most areas but delivers limited four-minute coverage in parts of the northwest. The consultant recommended operational steps before committing to the multi-million-dollar option of adding a staffed second station.

Chris Armstrong, project manager for Emergency Services Consultants International (ESCI), reviewed incident data from 2020'2024 and compared Cooper City's performance against national benchmarks. He reported that EMS calls comprise roughly 64% of the city's incidents while fire calls are about 1% of total volume. ESCI found alarm handling and turnout times exceed national benchmarks: 9-1-1 to dispatch averaged about 2 minutes, 23 seconds against a NFPA goal of about one minute; turnout time for EMS averaged about 1 minute, 37 seconds.

ESCI's geographic analysis showed Station 28 (the city's station) covers about 24% of the city within a four-minute travel time and about 96.5% within eight minutes. The consultant modeled three scenarios: maintain current station, relocate resources, or add a new station with new staff. Adding a new station improved four-minute coverage (to roughly 40%) but at significant cost. ESCI estimated the initial capital cost for a new station at about $5.8 million and an ongoing annual cost of about $3.2 million.

"Splitting resources improves your speed, but it decreases your effectiveness," Armstrong said, noting that redistributing existing staff to a new site would reduce effective response-force coverage. As a result, ESCI recommended against immediate station expansion; the firm advised instead pursuing operational improvements such as CAD/dispatch optimization, reduced turnout time through alternative alerting systems, enhanced mutual/automatic aid and consideration of peak-hour EMS units or roving deployment.

Commissioners reacted by asking the manager to pursue engineering improvements at the current station and to solicit architectural proposals. City Manager Erwin said the city has already begun preparing an RFP to select an architectural firm to develop conceptual plans for improving the fire/police complex. Several commissioners said they supported a priority to modernize and reconfigure the existing station and explore operational changes with Broward Sheriff's Office, the city's contracted fire-rescue provider.

BSO District Chief Richard Brown joined the discussion and confirmed BSO's staffing and mutual-aid arrangements. Commissioners also asked staff to examine response-mapping and automatic-aid assignments that might route closer neighboring units when they are the fastest available resource.

ESCI's study will be used in ongoing contract discussions and future capital planning; the commission signaled support for data-driven investment rather than immediate construction of a second full-time station.