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Lee Whitehurst, chief of the East Manatee Fire Rescue, was one of the first paid fire fighters on the force in 1988. He remembers Lakewood Ranch from before it was Lakewood Ranch.
“The Cypress Banks DRI (Development of Regional Impact) is how it began,” Whitehurst said. “It eventually changed from the Cypress Banks DRI to what became Lakewood Ranch. It was a total change of the people in place.”
Cypress Banks won the commission’s approval in 1989 and would have been where the Summerfield and Riverwalk neighborhoods are now.
Now, the East Manatee Fire District has 10 fire stations and one training tower. In 1994, it had just one station and was still known as the Braden River Fire Control and Rescue District. A second station opened on State Road 70 in 1997.
"We would be something, but we wouldn't be who we are today without Lakewood Ranch," Whitehurst said. "That project easily accounts for half of our beans as a farmer."
Henry Sheffield served as the first paid fire chief from 1983 until his retirement in 2007. Whitehurst said Sheffield’s background at the property appraiser’s office in Polk County made him the perfect fit for such a rapidly growing area.
“He understood a lot of property related things, including what we needed to know for our future and what was coming,” Whitehurst said. “He would frequently create relationships with these developers as a means of looking ahead, and we continue that to this day.”
Lakewood Ranch accounts for less than 50% of EMFR’s district, but half of the 10 fire stations are in Lakewood Ranch.
Whitehurst credits Rex Jensen, CEO of Lakewood Ranch’s parent company Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, for the fire rescue growing in pace with the community.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Whitehurst said they heard about a lot of projects, but for every 10, maybe one would actually be developed. Lakewood Ranch was different, and Jensen became a trusted man around the fire district.
“When Rex spoke, we listened,” Whitehurst said. “Once Lakewood Ranch started in 1994, they lived up to their predictions.”
Lakewood Ranch found land for the fire stations, too. When neighborhoods like Edgewater and Riverwalk were breaking ground in the late 1990s closer to University Parkway, the stations in the Braden River area couldn’t cover those homes.
The standard, set by the insurance industry, is that each fire station should only cover homes within five road miles of the station. Lakewood Ranch Boulevard didn't reach University Parkway yet.
Lakewood Ranch gave the fire district land on Town Center Parkway under the agreement that a station would be built within two years. Station 4 opened in 2002.
Fast forward almost 20 years, and Station 7 came about in a similar manner. Response times in the Lake Club and Country Club East were at nine minutes, which is double where they should’ve been.
The district hit pause on another station going in on Bourneside Boulevard and bought an 11-acre property with three buildable acres from SMR for $200,000. Station 7 opened on Covenant Way in 2020.
“It was probably the quickest land deal we’ve ever been involved in,” Whitehurst said. “Within two months, we owned that piece of land.”
That particular station is unique in that, just like Lakewood Ranch, it serves two counties.
Whitehurst said Jensen doesn’t see county lines, just Lakewood Ranch. Waterside Place was about to break ground when the district realized it had an issue with response times.
“Having a station there, not only served our purpose, but for Rex, it could serve a purpose in Sarasota County because there was no property over there,” Whitehurst said. “We struck up a deal. For the last couple of years, there’s been a fire engine with a paramedic on board that runs out of our Station 7 because it’s only 1,200 feet off the county line.”
The engine runs all the calls received from the Sarasota County side of Lakewood Ranch.
Fire Rescue needs to stay ahead of development, and Whitehurst knows from experience that East Manatee isn't done growing just yet.
When Station 1 was built on Lakewood Ranch Boulevard, he said it was in "the middle of nowhere." Now, it's the busiest station in the district.
Looking ahead, plans are on the drawing board for a sixth fire station in Lakewood Ranch.
The district bought five acres of land from SMR 12 years ago that's located on the southwest corner of Bourneside Boulevard and State Road 64.
"It could get kicked a year, but that (fire station) is going to happen," Whitehurst said. "I don't anticipate any more after that because we've got it all pretty well covered."
