JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Pecan Park Flea and Farmer’s market has been around for decades on Pecan Park Road.
The market has about 700 stores and hundreds of vendors.
General Manager John Heidecker showed First Coast News around the property, explaining that two fires caused severe damage to the property in 2007 and 2015.
“It took about a third of the market on the south," said Heidecker. "The firewall stopped the advancement of the fire and that was in 2007. In 2015, we lost a big section of the middle row and it was about 100 stores."
Heidecker says the cause for both fires are still unknown. He says the fire in 2015 took over 100 firefighters to get the fire under control.
The Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department called their response 'massive,' saying at least 5,000 to 6,000 feet of hose were required and that the water pressure had to be increased to defeat the fire.
But those fires did not stop this business from thriving.
“We’ve been doing really well. We're running at about a hundred percent occupancy without vendors. When one booth comes available, we fill it up pretty quickly," said Heidecker.
Heidecker says he saw at firsthand how hard the firefighters worked to put out the fire in 2015. He says that fire station 47 will be very beneficial to the community.
Spokesperson for JFRD says it currently takes 20 minutes to respond to some areas in Jacksonville’s Northside and with this new station it should drop that time to five to seven minutes.
Fire station 47 will also assist all property owner’s insurance rates five miles of the station.
JFRD spokesperson says the fire station 47 is expected to be finished being built by the beginning of next year.