Jacksonville Fire Chief Percy Golden II speaks Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, before the groundbreaking for new Fire Station 48 on Blount Island Boulevard. | Dan Scanlan, Jacksonville Today
Published on August 11, 2025 at 3:24 pm
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Construction has begun for a new fire station to replace one opened 45 years ago inside the gates of JAXPORT’s Blount Island Marine Terminal.
Station 48 will open in about eight months with a four-person team that handles its fire engine and tanker. A new fire boat dock will join it blocks away, instead of across the St. Johns River’s inlet between Blount Island and Heckscher Drive.
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Fire Chief Percy Golden II joined the mayor and others in a ceremonial groundbreaking Monday. It was his first since becoming chief in June.
Golden said the needs of the city’s maritime and residential communities have grown in the decades since Station 48 first opened. The new, larger station and dock for its 39-foot fire boat are needed to meet those demands, he said.
“Station 48 originally housed just one fire engine,” Golden said. “At only 1,700 square feet, the current facility can no longer support our growing operational needs. That’s why, when JAXPORT approached us a year and a half ago with the opportunity to partner on a federal grant from the Department of Defense, we knew it was the right path forward.”
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Fire Station 48 opened in 1978 to serve the port authority’s cargo facility and nearby homes and businesses in North Jacksonville. But a City Council bill in 2023 stated that a bigger facility was needed to handle a fire engine and rescue unit, with more space to house a foam truck to battle ship fires.
The current station also has a flooding issue and needs separate quarters for female firefighters. And Golden said its location inside the port authority’s security perimeter means potential delays getting to issues on the mainland, as well as quickly accessing the current fire boat dock 1.5 miles away along Heckscher Drive.
“The current process of moving through the gates at Blount Island can delay emergency response,” he said. “This new placement ensures continued access to Blount island and critical access to neighborhoods along Heckscher Drive. It also includes a new dock where the fire boat will be housed, allowing for immediate response to maritime emergencies. These new facilities will reduce response times for everyone.”
The new fire facilities will cost about $12 million, but JAXPORT got $5.9 million in U.S. Department of Defense funding, with the city matching that for the construction.
“Because half of this project is funded by our federal partners, it makes it fiscally responsible to invest in it,” Mayor Donna Deegan said. “The new facility will help reduce emergency response times and minimize disruptions to Jacksonville’s growing maritime and industrial footprint.”
Jacksonville has five marine fire stations to handle its 22 miles of coastline and 1,100 miles of navigable waterways.
The groundbreaking comes just over a month after Station 76 opened on Cedar Point Road to serve the growing Northside communities near the Pumpkin Hill Creek Preserve State Park. And Marine Station 68 opened in March 2024 in a renovated home in the Beauclerc neighborhood.
City officials said a groundbreaking should occur next month at Station 39/Marine 35 in Downtown off Gator Bowl Boulevard.
“With all that building around the Downtown area with the Jaguars stadium, the hotels being built, that’s going to be a huge help for Jacksonville and it’s a needed area,” Golden said. “Plus we will have some maritime response and some engine and rescue response as well.”
That marine station will open in 2026, replacing one formerly housed at the former Kids Kampus just west of Metropolitan Park, and now temporarily sited at Arlington Lions Club Park.
