Deltona review recommends rebuilding and adding stations after data shows slow response times

Deltona Fire Chief Bush Buscher told the City Commission on Nov. 3 that Deltona's five fire stations are operating under growing strain and recommended rebuilding and relocating facilities and adding stations to improve response times and reduce unit overload.

Buscher said the department ran 11,950 calls in 2024, up from 8,311 in 2010, and recorded 19,518 apparatus responses in 2024. "We're typically doing [first-due travel time] in about 7 minutes and 24 seconds," he told the commission, compared with the NFPA/ISO target of roughly four minutes for first-due travel time.

Why it matters: longer travel and dispatch times can delay care on medical and fire emergencies. Buscher noted the county's dispatch processing averaged 3 minutes, 3 seconds in 2024, which adds to total response time and is outside the fire department's direct control. A public commenter warned that "people will start going brain dead after 4 minutes," a remark the commission acknowledged during public comment.

The presentation and analysis

Buscher reviewed the condition and role of the city's stations: Station 61 (built 1974) is structurally older and at capacity; Station 62 (2005) sits back in a neighborhood and may be poorly sited for main-road response; Station 63 (1978) and Station 64 (a 1996 metal…