With the new purchase, the department will have four engines and a ladder truck at its disposal, he added. The old truck will join a 1990 engine that has been kept as a reserve. 

Before city council's decision over the summer, the last time a new engine was purchased for the fire department was in 2009. 

Deem said having more equipment at their disposal is critical as the department, which has three stations, does 21 runs on average each day.  

Without the referendum money, Chief Carlson and the rest of the New Milford Fire Protection District had to get financially creative, such as purchasing a used engine/ladder truck from a department in Clearwater, Florida.

"This rig replaced our squad. It's going to be a front-line engine. Our current engine is going to then become a resuce engine. That will go out on auto accidents, car fires, that sort of thing. We're gonna try and get a little more out of that. That's a 1999 [model], so we're gonna try to stretch that out another five to ten years."

Existing stations already serve the New Tampa area and an additional fire engine and rescue truck have been staged in the area for months now, in anticipation of Station 23’s opening.

Still, a new station centered in this growing collection of gated communities at the city’s northernmost reaches was expected to help improve response times that lag far behind Tampa’s four other fire department districts.

At 8.96 minutes, the 34-square mile district reported a median response time that’s longer than the others by about 90 seconds, according to data obtained by the Tampa Bay Times last fall through a public records request.