Where's the fire [station]?

Cuyahoga County's 53 independent fire departments operating 103 stations cost taxpayers over $300 million annually with significant overlap in service areas, prompting calls for consolidation to reduce duplication and costs.

Cuyahoga County is home to 53 municipal fire departments with 103 fire stations. This map and accompanying chart show that most stations have potentially overlapping service areas, but each department operates independently of its neighbors. The combined cost to taxpayers is more than $300 million. What's wrong with that picture? Some leaders say that it shows needless and costly duplication and offers a compelling reason to consolidate all of the departments into one.

Fire station location and area within one mile of the station. (Number refers to station on the chart below.)

How many stations for three communities?

In a research paper last year, Cleveland State University urban planning student Archie Tse mapped how much area firefighters could cover from fire stations in Warrensville Heights, Highland Hills and North Randall in the minutes after a 9-1-1 call. The calculation:

Within four minutes: The stations could cover a lot of the same ground.

Within eight minutes: Any of the stations could reach

DATA COMPILED AND ANALYZED BY MARTIN STOLZ, PATRICIA O'DONNELL AND THOMAS GAUMER. GRAPHIC BY BILL MARSHALL AND JOEL HURWIT, THE PLAIN DEALER.