Seminole County breaks ground on long-awaited Fire Station 25 replacement

A 1975 Casselberry fire station that county officials say has been overtaken by growth is finally being replaced, with Seminole County breaking ground April 13 on a new Fire Station 25 designed to strengthen fire and EMS coverage in one of the county’s busiest corridors.

The existing station, at 1055 Red Bug Lake Rd. in Casselberry, has been described by the county as one of its oldest. Built as a volunteer fire station, it has lost emergency-response viability as economic development, population growth and changes to the road network have reshaped the area around it. County records tie the project directly to those pressures, making the replacement less about symbolism than about whether first responders can still get to crashes, structure fires and medical calls quickly enough.

Amy Lockart, who represents District 4, framed the project as a milestone for both the community and the firefighters who work out of the station. The county’s fire department is much larger than it was when Station 25 opened. Founded in 1974, the Seminole County Fire Department now has 25 stations and 576 personnel serving nearly half a million residents, according to its 2024 annual report. That same report says the department has expanded from a nine-station system to 20 stations over its history, a sign of how rapidly the county has had to build out public-safety coverage.

The new Station 25 is planned as a 12,158-square-foot, one-story fire and police facility. Bid documents place the project on Wilshire Boulevard in Casselberry, underscoring that the county is not just patching an aging building but reworking how emergency services are positioned inside a growing part of Seminole County. Casselberry had consolidated into the county fire department by 2015, alongside Altamonte Springs and Winter Springs, further folding local coverage into the larger county system.

For residents, the test will be whether the new station shortens the time it takes engines and medic units to reach neighborhoods off Red Bug Lake Road, the commercial strips around Casselberry, and the commuter traffic that clogs nearby roads. County leaders are betting that a modern station, built for today’s call volume and road patterns, will give firefighters better working conditions and give nearby neighborhoods more reliable protection when storms, wrecks and medical emergencies hit.