Malabar Fire Department — Malabar, Florida

The Town of Malabar runs its own fire department, the Malabar Fire Department, from a single station at 1840 Malabar Road, phone 321-725-1030, led by Fire Chief Joseph Hooker (Town of Malabar).

Malabar's fire service is a town department set up in its own code. Article IV of Town Code Chapter 8 states that there is hereby established a department to be known as the Malabar Fire Department, and Sec. 8-92 makes its members paid firefighters, volunteer firefighters or a combination of both (Malabar Town Code, Sec. 8-91 and 8-92). The same article requires the apparatus to be housed in a fire station provided by the Town of Malabar. The town's Fire Trucks page shows Malabar Engine 99 (Town of Malabar).

The department works inside a wider system. The Malabar budget for fiscal year 2026/27 lists County Dispatch Services and a Medical Director among the professional services the town buys by contract (FY 26/27 budget message, page 11), and Sec. 8-95 lets the fire chief and town administrator, with Town Council approval, enter a mutual aid system with neighboring departments (Sec. 8-95). Last verified: October 13, 2026, on the Town of Malabar website.

The Malabar Fire Department is a combination department: a Fire Chief approved by the Town Council, paid Lieutenants and Driver/Engineers on shifts, and volunteer firefighters (Malabar Town Code; FY 26/27 budget message).

Under Sec. 8-92 the fire chief is recommended by the council liaison or town administrator and is subject to approval by the Town Council; the chief sets the number of members, subject to council approval, and appoints officers as he deems necessary. Sec. 8-93 makes the chief answerable to the town administrator for personnel, equipment and budget, and requires that the department conduct or cause to be conducted at least twice per month, suitable drills or instruction in equipment, first aid and rescue work, salvage and fire prevention (Sec. 8-93).

The FY 2026/27 Malabar budget message describes how the shifts are covered today. The Town Council raised the Fire Chief salary late in fiscal year 2024/25, and the chief agreed to fill the chief's position while staying on his scheduled Lieutenant shift. The Town Manager asked to delay recruiting for the vacant Lieutenant position until January 2027 by funding it as a .75 full-time equivalent (budget message, page 11). The same message applies the ten percent increase in the collective bargaining agreement for Lieutenants and Driver/Engineers, plus a four percent cost of living adjustment for all 15.75 town positions.

The department has an older volunteer history. Article V of Chapter 8, adopted on December 20, 1993, created a Malabar Fire Department Review Board to study the fire and rescue services then provided by the Malabar Volunteer Fire Department, Inc., including minimum staffing, training and cost effectiveness (Sec. 8-111 to 8-113). Article IV was rewritten in its entirety by Ord. No. 96-3 on April 1, 1996.

Volunteers join by filing four Malabar forms with staff at the Malabar Fire Department, 1840 Malabar Road (Town of Malabar): the Volunteer Firefighter Application, Direct Deposit Information, the federal I-9 employment verification and a federal W-4, all posted on the town's volunteer page. Town Code Sec. 8-94 says volunteer members of the fire department shall be elected by the department and shall meet all requirements of state law, and that paid positions may be created by the Town Council, with the chief recommending qualified people to fill them (Sec. 8-94). Any volunteer or paid member may be suspended or dismissed by the chief for good cause.

The Town of Malabar budgeted $1,071,752 for Fire Control in fiscal year 2026/27, out of a balanced town budget of $4,543,728 (FY 2026/27 budget summary notice).

Worked from those two figures, fire protection is about 23.6 percent of Malabar spending for the year ($1,071,752 divided by $4,543,728). Personnel is the largest piece. Exhibit A of the budget message splits the Malabar fire department appropriation as shown below (Exhibit A, page 12).

Earlier years ran lower. The Malabar audit for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2024 shows a fire budget of $978,944 as first adopted, $784,849 after amendments and $738,856 actually spent (FY 2024 audit, page 17). The town also receives a small state payment toward firefighter supplemental compensation, budgeted at $1,320 for FY 2026/27 (revenue detail, page 19).

For FY 2026/27 Malabar is buying eight SCBA masks and related equipment for $12,000, insulating the fire station for $8,000, making the final fire engine loan payment and seeking a grant for an all-terrain rescue vehicle (Town of Malabar budget, page 12).

The budget message calls the fire engine payment the last payment for the Fire Engine Loan and gives it as $49,696 (budget message, page 10); the department table carries $49,697 for the same debt line. The all-terrain vehicle is an Emergency Response Service unit equipped with a patient sled, budgeted at $24,000 with a grant that may reimburse fifty percent. The town's reason is local: more than 30% of the Malabar land area is natural preserve or conservation habitat with passive recreation, and emergency crews must rescue and respond there in any condition (page 11).

The five-year Malabar Capital Improvement Plan looks further out. It starts a vehicle replacement fund toward a new engine with an estimated cost of $800,000, putting $150,000 aside in 2028, and lists $12,000 a year for SCBA replacement, yearly fire facility work and a $45,000 septic mandate project at the fire department in 2028 (Capital Improvement Plan, page 34). A separate $100,000 fire department driveway is planned for 2028 (page 35).

No: the Town of Malabar stopped issuing burn permits on March 02, 2026, and burns inside the town are now authorized by the Florida Forest Service Orlando Forestry District at (407) 888-8760 (Town of Malabar).

That change moved a job off the Malabar fire station's desk. Chapter 8, Article III of the Malabar Town Code still describes the older system, a written permit from the chief of the fire department and an on-site survey by the chief or a designee before a land clearing burn (Malabar Town Code, Article III), but the town's burn page now sends every request to the state office. The town page also lists which burns need state authorization, including land clearing, pile and acreage burns, and piles greater than 8 feet in diameter.

Fire safety inspections in Malabar are done by the town itself: the Town Code names the Town of Malabar, through the Fire Marshal or State Certified Inspector, as the authority having jurisdiction (Malabar Town Code, Chapter 8).

Under Sec. 8-32 a fire safety inspector working under Florida Statutes Chapter 633 may inspect the Malabar establishments covered by the state uniform fire safety standards biannually, after written notice delivered at least seventy-two (72) hours in advance of the inspection. Establishments outside that list must still have their fire prevention equipment periodically inspected by certified personnel and be able to show proof to the authority having jurisdiction. Sec. 8-36 requires inspected premises to keep maintenance agreements for fire alarms, fire pumps, sprinklers and special extinguishing systems on file with the authority having jurisdiction (Sec. 8-32 and 8-36).

The codes themselves are old editions kept in the Malabar ordinance book. Sec. 8-26 adopts the NFPA Life Safety Code, 1991 edition, for buildings built after January 1, 1988, and the Standard Fire Prevention Code 1991 edition for older buildings, with the State of Florida Uniform Fire Code for occupancies the state fire marshal classifies; appeals go to the town board of adjustment and appeals (Sec. 8-26 and 8-28).

Malabar Town Code Chapter 8 sets local fire safety rules on top of the state fire code, from house numbers and fire lanes to hydrant spacing and fumigation notice (Malabar Town Code, Chapter 8).

Every Malabar home must show its number from the road at a minimum of four (4) inches in height and one-half (½) inch in width, and other residential and commercial buildings at least 6 inches high, so responding emergency vehicles can identify the address from the public roadway. Premises not readily reached from a public road need fire lanes on at least two sides of a building; the code says this access shall be at least twenty (20) feet wide, and no further than ten (10) feet from the building (Sec. 8-47 and 8-57).

Water supply rules cover places without town water. Where no municipal water system exists, commercial and residential developments must provide a permanent water supply under NFPA 1231 for suburban and rural firefighting. When hydrants are required they go at each main entrance and then every 750 feet, and the hydrant spacing may be increased to one thousand (1,000) foot intervals where a developer installs automatic sprinklers (Sec. 8-58 to 8-60). A contractor tenting a Malabar house for fumigation must notify the fire department in writing at least forty-eight (48) hours prior to tenting of any structure (Sec. 8-51).