PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — On Wednesday, St. Lucie County Fire Station 18 held its grand opening. It is the newest fire station in nearly two decades.
Fire District leaders said it will help with the growing population in St. Lucie County.
From 2023 to 2024, they said their run volume went up 10 percent.
From the outside, it looks like a typical new fire station. But a closer look at the inside is a new cleaning facility district leader said will keep firefighters safe.
"We're state of the art,” said Patrick Lennon, a PPE technician at Fire Station 18. “There's not a lot of fire departments or fire districts that do the same process."
For Lennon, this facility is not just about soap and water, it's about life or death.
"Our main priority is health and safety,” said Lennon. "We're processing them to try to reduce the risk of cancer in firefighters."
Lennon said they used to send out their gear to be cleaned of any harmful chemicals or carcinogens, which took weeks. Here, it takes around two days.
"They can go back into their gear that they're used to wearing,” said Lennon. “Instead of going into loaner gear that may not fit them."
Lennon showed WPTV’s Tyler Hatfield the hydrostatic tester, which finds damage on the inner lining of the gear.
"[I’m] making sure that their gear is ready to go so they don't have to second guess, 'hey, can i run into that fire and be safe coming out?"” said Lennon.
Lennon works with only one other person, Tommy Marazzi, who tests the self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA), things like air masks and air tanks.
"We want to make sure that there's no leaks in the mask,” said Lennon. “They're not inhaling any smoke or any carcinogens."
Lennon said normally the process takes about a month.
But having this technology in-house, Lennon said, means they’ll get results in just 5 minutes.
"We're saving money, and we can get it back to the firefighters' hands a little bit quicker," said Lennon.
Lennon takes his role seriously, making sure all firefighters are safe on the job.
"It's important for me to make sure that the guys that are out there doing their job have that time to spend with their family, meet their grandkids when they retire,” said Lennon.
