Fire Rescue and EMS — Brevard County, Florida

Brevard County Fire Rescue provides fire protection and ambulance service in unincorporated Brevard County and in the municipalities that take part in the county system, such as West Melbourne and Grant-Valkaria.

The county's FY2025 audited financial statements define the Emergency Services Special Revenue Fund as the account for fire protection, ambulance, and emergency management services in the unincorporated areas of Brevard County and participating municipalities (Brevard County FY2025 audit, p.53). The same note lists Emergency Services among the major governmental funds of Brevard County.

The clearest public map of who is inside the county fire system is the property tax bill. The Brevard County Tax Collector lists the Fire Services Special Assessment as a charge on the annual bill for all property owners in unincorporated Brevard, West Melbourne, Melbourne Village, Palm Shores, and Grant-Valkaria (Brevard County Tax Collector). In South Brevard that puts West Melbourne, Melbourne Village and Grant-Valkaria on county fire service, while Palm Bay and Melbourne are served by their own city departments.

A property owner in the south county who is unsure which side of the line a parcel falls on can read the non-ad valorem section of the tax notice: a line for the county fire assessment means Brevard County Fire Rescue, while the Tax Collector lists a separate City of Palm Bay fire assessment, phone (321) 409-6300, for property inside Palm Bay (Brevard County Tax Collector). Questions about the county assessment go to Brevard County Fire Rescue at (321) 633-2056.

Palm Bay and Melbourne operate city fire departments, and neither city appears on the Tax Collector's list of places billed the county fire assessment (Brevard County Tax Collector).

Palm Bay Fire-Rescue consists of six fire stations that cover the city 24 hours a day with fire and medical services, according to the City of Palm Bay facility directory, which lists Fire Station 2 at 150 Malabar Rd, phone (321) 409-6373 (City of Palm Bay). The city warns that a station may not be staffed at all times because crews leave on calls, and that residents should call 911 rather than go to a Palm Bay station.

In Melbourne, the city department states that all of its stations are licensed in advanced life support and are staffed by paramedics (City of Melbourne Fire Department). Melbourne takes part in the Brevard County Mutual Aid program, which lets it draw on resources throughout the county during a major incident or when Melbourne crews are tied up on several calls, and it also belongs to the Statewide Emergency Response agreement. Effective November 1, 2022, the Melbourne Fire Department became an ISO Class 1 department, the first fire department in Brevard County to receive that rating.

The two city departments are separate employers with separate budgets. Palm Bay residents see the city charge as the City of Palm Bay fire assessment on the Brevard County tax notice, a line the Tax Collector lists apart from the county Fire Services Special Assessment (Brevard County Tax Collector).

Brevard County Fire Rescue is funded through the Emergency Services Fund, which drew $109.0 million in FY2025 mainly from dedicated property taxes, the fire assessment, ambulance fees and General Fund support (Brevard County FY2025 audit, p.13).

The same audit says the department spent $113.4 million in fiscal year 2025 on fire protection, ambulance service, hazardous material mitigation, other emergency services and capital renovations. The Emergency Services fund balance fell by $4.4 million, mainly because Brevard County bought fire engines and replaced or renovated fire stations during the year (Brevard County FY2025 audit, p.13).

Statement A-6 of the Brevard County audit breaks the Emergency Services Fund down by source for the year ended September 30, 2025 (Brevard County FY2025 audit, p.33). The table below shows the actual amounts.

Permits, fees and special assessments was the largest single revenue line at $38,766,751, ahead of charges for services at $26,927,466 (Brevard County FY2025 audit, p.33). At year end, Brevard County held $39,336,084 of restricted fund balance for fire rescue operations and $9,503,231 for emergency communications (Brevard County FY2025 audit, p.61).

The Fire Ctrl Cowide levy of the Brevard County commission rose from 0.4929 mills in 2024-25 to an adopted 0.6431 mills for 2025-26, according to the Florida Department of Revenue comparison of Brevard levies (Florida Department of Revenue, Table 1).

The state table lists the levy as Fire Ctrl Cowide under the Brevard County BCC taxing authority. At 0.4929 mills it raised $16,051,827 in 2024-25. The rolled-back rate listed for 2025-26 was 0.4750 mills, which would have raised $16,600,214. The adopted 2025-26 rate of 0.6431 mills levies $22,474,942; the table shows a 40.0% change in taxes levied from 2024-25 and a 35.4% difference from the rolled-back rate (Florida Department of Revenue, Table 1).

On a Brevard County tax notice the non-ad valorem charges, including the fire assessment, are separated from ad valorem taxes such as the fire millage by a bold horizontal line (Brevard County Tax Collector). The Tax Collector notes that non-ad valorem assessments are set amounts and are not based on value, which is the main difference from the millage.

The Fire Services Special Assessment, implemented in 2006, is a set-amount charge on the Brevard County tax bill based on the property use code from the Property Appraiser and the base square footage of the buildings (Brevard County Tax Collector).

Because it is a non-ad valorem charge, the assessment is not based on value. The Brevard County Tax Collector bills and collects non-ad valorem charges on a fiscal year running October 1 to September 30, and prints them on the notice separately from ad valorem taxes (Brevard County Tax Collector). The rate depends on the primary property use code that the Brevard County Property Appraiser assigns, so the charge on a West Melbourne or Palm Shores parcel follows the use code and building size rather than market value.

The legal frame was tested early. On February 2, 2007, the Florida Attorney General answered a question from the Brevard County Attorney, whose office is at 2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way in Viera, about a low-income assistance program for the fire assessment (Florida Attorney General informal opinion). The opinion noted that the assessment is collected under section 197.3632, Florida Statutes, and concluded that, if the county uses that statute, it is not authorized to create an exemption or adjustment program reducing the charge for certain taxpayers; the board may adjust an assessment only based on the benefit the property receives.

The opinion also notes that a Fire Services Special Assessment collected under that statute would follow the regular Chapter 197 collection rules, including the discount for early payment and tax certificates and tax deeds for nonpayment (Florida Attorney General).

An ambulance service applying for a state license needs a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the Brevard County Board of County Commissioners before the state will license it to operate here, under section 401.25 (Section 401.25, Florida Statutes).

The statute also says that in issuing the certificate the county commission shall consider the recommendations of municipalities within its jurisdiction, which gives Palm Bay, Melbourne and the other Brevard cities a formal say (Florida Statutes 401.25). The same section carves out a narrow exemption for a faith-based, not-for-profit first responder agency that has been responding to medical emergencies in Florida for at least 15 consecutive years and meets the other conditions in the statute, a rule that matters to Brevard County only if such an agency applies.

On the county side, ambulance charges are counted inside the Brevard County Emergency Services Fund, and the county audit names General Fund subsidies for the provision of ambulance services among the significant transfers between Brevard County funds (Brevard County FY2025 audit, p.76). Last verified: October 12, 2026, on the Brevard County Tax Collector website and in the FY2025 county audit.