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The RCFD Letters Have Come Off Walt Disney World's Fire Station, and the Big Yellow Fire Hat's Seal Is Painted Over in White
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The RCFD Letters Have Come Off Walt Disney World's Fire Station, and the Big Yellow Fire Hat's Seal Is Painted Over in White

Michael Travels
·
Published

The big silver letters on the side of Walt Disney World's fire station used to spell RCFD. They now spell FD.

WDW News Today published photos on Tuesday showing that the Walt Disney World Fire Department has stripped visible references to the Reedy Creek Improvement District off its own building, three and a half years after the district itself was renamed.

The Walt Disney World fire station photographed from across the road in daylight. The long red building has a swooping roofline with a blue fascia, a glass and grey louvred upper section carrying two large silver letters reading FD, a white hose sculpture looping three times over the engine bay doors, a small water fountain in front, and a large yellow fire hat sculpture mounted on the wall at the right end with a plain white shield on it. A live oak frames the right of the frame.

The station as it looks now. The letters on the louvred panel read FD, and the yellow fire hat at the right end carries a blank white shield. Image: WDW News Today

What actually changed

Per WDWNT, the building previously carried large RCFD letters, for Reedy Creek Fire Department, in two places: along the side and again on the front. The oversized yellow fire hat mounted above the entrance was decorated with the same branding, on the shield across its front.

Three things are different now. On the side, only the RC came down. As WDWNT puts it, "‘RC’ has been removed from the side of the building, leaving just the letters ‘FD,’ or ‘Fire Department.’"

On the front, the whole thing went. The outlet reports that "the ‘RCFD’ letters at the front of the building have been removed, and the fire hat’s seal has been painted over with white."

And the red monument sign at the road has been redone for the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District. WDWNT notes it is "now decorated with the CFTOD name and logo."

The same fire station photographed around 2023 under a grey and white cloudy sky. Large silver letters on the louvred panel spell RCFD, a smaller set of RCFD letters sits on the red wall at the far right end, and the yellow fire hat sculpture above them carries a pale shield with a dark crest on it. Three flags fly from poles behind the building and a clipped hedge and lawn run across the foreground.

The same building around 2023, when the side of the station still read RCFD and the fire hat still carried a seal. Image: WDW News Today

Compare the two photos and the change is easy to read. The letters sit in the same spots on the same louvred panel. Two of them are simply missing.

Why the name changed in the first place

The Reedy Creek Improvement District was, in WDWNT's words, "first created in 1967 to support Walt Disney World’s development in Florida." WDWNT describes it as a local government entity whose remit inside the district covers land use and essential public services. The fire department fell under it.

The district did not go away. It got a new name. WDWNT summarizes it this way: "In early 2023, RCID was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District (CFTOD), and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed a new board." The outlet adds that when the change happened, "all organizations that fell under this district were required to change their name."

LaughingPlace, which published its own photographs of the same work on Tuesday, puts a month on it: "In February 2023, the Reedy Creek Improvement District was renamed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District following Governor Ron DeSantis signing a law that changed the way the district had operated since its inception." That outlet calls the fire department "one part of the old Reedy Creek that had been slow in adopting its new name."

The requirement dated from then. The building did not follow.

A low red monument sign on a lawn beside a wet road, in front of the red fire station wall and part of its white hose sculpture. The sign carries a circular silver logo of a tree and the words CENTRAL FLORIDA TOURISM OVERSIGHT DISTRICT in silver capitals, with a small plaque below reading 1920 E. Buena Vista Drive. A tall striped pole with a stop sign stands to the left.

The sign at the road now carries the district's tree logo and full name, plus the station's address at 1920 E. Buena Vista Drive. Image: WDW News Today

What has not been said

Neither outlet that covered it on Tuesday points to an announcement. No press release, no statement from the district and no post from Disney appears in either report. The evidence in both stories is the photographs.

On its own, a quiet lettering change would not be news. It is worth writing up here because of which name came down.

A wider view of the fire station from across the road, framed by the trunk and canopy of a large live oak on the left. The FD letters are visible on the louvred panel, the three white hose loops arc over three closed engine bay doors, the yellow fire hat with its white shield sits at the right end of the red building, and three flagpoles rise behind the roof, one flying the United States flag and one the Florida state flag.

The full frontage, with the hose sculpture looping over the engine bays and the flagpoles behind. Image: WDW News Today

Worth knowing

The station sits on East Buena Vista Drive, per the address on its own sign. If you want to see the RCFD lettering on this building, the older photos are where to look.

Sources

WDW News Today, "Walt Disney World Fire Department Removes References to Former Reedy Creek Improvement District"
LaughingPlace, "Photos: Walt Disney World's Fire Department has Finally Adopted Its "New" Name"

Image credits

All photographs by WDW News Today.

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