Greetings everyone, I hope his email finds everyone well.  To say this has been a trying week would be an understatement.  Let’s talk about some of the good and then the bad.

• Sea of Blue March—on October 10^th, JFRD will be marching from station 4 to station 1 to honor our fallen firefighters and to honor the sacrifices and bravery each of you display daily.  The fact you dedicate yourself to this career knowing your name may one day end up on that wall  shows the caliber of your character.  An incident management team has been put together to make sure everything is in place and runs according to plan.  A committee has been assigned to look at bar-ribbons for the Class A coat.  As of now, only those who have been awarded have bar-ribbons.  Similar to the military, we are looking at assigning specialized color ribbons based on certifications, college degrees, number of lives saved, deployments, as well as the awards.  And just like the military, the higher the honor, the higher you would wear the ribbons above your name.  For starters, everyone would have at least two: minimum standards and EMT or paramedic.  Another idea being floated is one silver stripe around the cuff for engineer and another type of strip to denote a retired FF.  Capt. Lutzen is arranging a fitting at a location for anyone who wants to buy a coat.  Others are reaching out to other Honor Guards and Pipes & Drums bands as well as other departments who have expressed interest in marching with us.  This event is for you and the families of those fallen.  Please make sure to do your part and come!

• Shuffling of Station Assignments for Chiefs—in order to better align responses with responsibilities and workloads, the following changes are forthcoming:

• Fire 1 will pick up Stations 19 and 27 and lose Station 9.
• Fire 5 will pick up Station 26.
• Fire 7 will pick up Station 9.
  • We have to wait on a Field Staffing programming change from ITD before we go live.  I will let you know as soon as I have a date.

• City Council Audit findings—if you are an officer on an ALS engine company, please take the time to review SOP 430.1005 as it relates to narcotics logs.  I can’t stress enough the importance of complying with this protocol. 

• Highway Incident Scene Incident Protection SOG—We dodged another bullet last day when E34 was rear-ended by a car at a high rate of speed while they were putting out another car fire.  This and other incidents such as E154 and the recent FHP fatalities highlight the dangers you all face every day working roadside calls.  Until the SOG is finalized, each crew has the authority to request additional units as needed whether it’s for traffic control, patient care, or otherwise.  JSO and FHP have ultimate responsibility for traffic control but if you feel another engine or ladder is needed to help divert traffic, then request it.  Your safety is the most important thing.

• Speaking of dodging bullets—E28 came close to a Mayday On Bowden Cir E during a W3.  The call came in as a smoke investigation and was upgraded to a W3 on arrival.  Being it was a single shot response, E28 ran out of water and a FF had their mask ripped of their face in high heat and high smoke conditions.  Only the training of the individual and crew, saved them.  For this reason, the following call signal has been deleted from the CAD.  The changes are this:  If the caller smells smoke, then it’s a smoke odor investigation and the assignment is based on the occupancy.  If the caller sees smoke, then it’s a structure fire assignment.  The caller nor the receiver is a fire behavior expert….you are.  Where there’s smoke, there’s the high probability of a fire.  I would rather have all the help coming at once, than risk another E28 scenario like this week.

Let’s see some of the runs we’ve gone on this week:

• W3/Apt. Structure Fire/FD50/3737 St. Johns Bluff Rd. S./TGB1/End
• W3/Apt. Structure Fire/FD50/3737 St. Johns Bluff Rd. S./Club at Town Center/Apt. 1912/End
• Traffic Accident/FD 28/Beach Blvd. & St. Johns Bluff Rd. S./MCI Level 1/4 adults & 2 children/TGB1
• MCI LEVEL 1... FD52 COLLINS RD/RAMPART RD... TGB1
• FD27 MCI LEVEL 1 TRAFFIC ACCIDENT UNIVERSITY/UNIVERSITY CLUB..TGB1
• ALERT 2/JIA/SMALL ACFT LESS THAN 20 SOULS ONBD/FIRE IN COCKPIT/E16 ADV LOG FS16/END
• W3 MOBILE HOME/FD35/12719 PALMETTO ST/POSS PERS INSIDE/IC E135 ON B-1/END
• 4 CONFIRMED VICTIMS/ MOBILE HOME STRUCTURE FIRE/ FD 35/ 12719 PALMETTO ST/ TG B1/
• W3 SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENTIAL STRUCTURE FIRE/FD 28/3523 E BOWDEN CIR/TG B1/END
• ALERT 2/JIA/AMERICAN EAGLE FLT 145/PRESSURE ISSUES/51 SOULS ONBD/FS16 PLUS ASSIGNMENT ENR/IC F8 ON B-1/END
• E34 INVOLVED IN MVA WHILE ON SCENE OF VEHICLE FIRE/CIVILIAN VEH SIDE SWIPED E34/DUNN AVE EAST SIDE OF I295/NO JFRD PERSONNEL INJ/R24 TRANSPORTING 1 CIVILIAN TO UF HEALTH/END
• FD48/ F8 CONFIRMED PIPE BOMB W/JSO/MINI STORAGE COMP/ 10415 NEW BERLIN RD/ NO HAZARDOUS MATERIAL INV PER F8/TGA1/END
• And these are just the ones we get paged on…
• Let’s not forget the couple of thousands of other calls you each went too!

Time to give some thanks…

I wanted to tell you something positive that happened within JFRD last night.

Last night (June 16th) just after midnight L10 responded to a heart problem on Alpha Ave.  The notes stated the patient was in a silver Saturn on the side of the road with flashers on.   We arrived to find an elderly lady, 89 years old, sitting in her car in which apparently a bystander called for her.   After a thorough medical assessment by both L10 and R22, we could not find any medical problem with her and she was not complaining of any pain or medical problem. Her only complaint was she couldn’t find a certain business. ( keep in mind it's 12am) She was a very petite elderly lady and her mind seemed very sharp. She could tell us exactly how to get back to  her home in district 7.   The confusing part for all of us was it didn't make sense why she was out at midnight driving around.  Though she had no medical complaint and could answer all of our questions.   Both officers knew they could not just leave her and let her drive home by herself, even though she could tell us exactly how to get to her house.  JSO was contacted to respond and after about 5-10 more minutes of waiting, FRCC was contacted again for an ETA on JSO.  Unfortunately  we received the that JSO could not give us an ETA.   Both officers , Lt. Waters (R22) and Lt. Culpepper (L10) came up with a plan and decided that the FF on L10 would drive her car home for her while L10 followed.   When asked if she would mind if we drove her home she agreed with a thankful heart.   With her gas light on in her car ... Eng.  David Spencer stopped at the gas station and paid for fuel out if his own money.

Upon arrival at her house we were met by 5 JSO squad cars. 

After talking with JSO, apparently the elderly lady is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer's and took the car without permission.   JSO was in the process of their missing person protocol and issuing a silver alert on her.   

I just wanted to acknowledge both Lt Waters  and Lt Culpepper for their leadership.  When put in a position to make a  tough decision , when they could have just let the elderly lady go home by herself, they chose to show what "love" for others really is.  I applaud both of them and thank them both for their leadership and going above and beyond.  Also for Eng Spencer for kindly using his own money for fuel in her car.

Rhett Dantzler L10C

There is an urban legend that each tab was worth a minute of dialysis time but they are sold as scrap metal with the all proceeds staying locally. The tabs are a denser aluminum and they have an agreement with a local recycler to receive premium price as less processing (cleaning) is need than the entire can. Most local McDonald restaurants collect tabs in a large plastic coke bottle container in their stores.

Last week after dropping off a patient at Wolfson Children's Hospital ER, Rescue 52 dropped off a few pop top tabs (approximately 40 lbs - almost 4 full cheese ball containers!) at the local Ronald McDonald House. This was done with no fanfare as a thing we have been collecting at our station for a few years. A picture was taken at their staff request for their face book page. They presented us with a small certificate.

Awesome job to you all and for everything station 52 has been doing for the cause…Well done!

Attached is the letter from an elderly lady who was helped by Capt. Brinson and his crew.  Well done.

The point of each of these stories, is that for every negative news story or blog, our department is out doing great things every day for our citizens that mostly go unrecognized by the media.  That doesn’t mean it doesn’t go unrecognized by the people you are helping.  Please continue to go the extra mile as I can assure you, it makes a huge difference for everyone.  We’re very proud of you all and one day it will pay you back. Click here to view the letter.

If you have spent any time on this job, you know you have things you’d like to forget.  Calls, smells, sights, experiences, etc. all fill up that file cabinet in your head.  If you’re new on this job, ask anyone who’s been around for a while and they may or may not talk about their calls.  It seems every time I meet someone new, they always ask.. What is the worst call you’ve been on?   And all of you know, that’s not an easy answer.  Worst fire, worst car wreck, worst shooting, worst rape victim, or murder suicide, worst hanging, worst natural death (how bad were they decomposed), worst fight, worst scenario, and on and on.  What happened on 12719 Palmetto St. this week, will most definitely be filed away in everyone’s file cabinet as one of their worst.  My heart breaks for those who lost their lives and for the family grieving, but it also breaks for the crews that were there.  It’s easy to say it’s part of your job but truth is nothing was easy about that call.  I applaud the heroic efforts of the first arriving crews and all the efforts by the men and women who rode on Rescue to the hospital to try and save a life.  When I say others do not understand who we are or what we do or why we do it is because they cannot fathom being the one to mitigate a run like that.  I also know for many of you the Palmetto St. run is not over and will not be for quite some time.  Please know resources are available for you.  If you want to know my answers when someone asks…The car wreck on Cassat Ave and I-10 with three adults and one child, the Halloween night car wreck on Beach Bv, the T2 fire, the murder suicide of two UNF students, the suicide that was my first cricothyrotomy, and too many structure fires with one or two fatalities; never four.

Well that’s it for this WIR.  Please continue to have your thoughts and prayers with our folks as some are truly having a hard time.  For me, I’ll be trying to finish the master bath as my wife broke the bank this week with the vanity and marble slab.  How much can you earn donating plasma?

As always we thank you for what you do (making things better), why you do it (because you want to make a difference) and for always showing why you are truly the Best Fire Rescue Department in the Country! (Palmetto St, Alpha Ave, Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Atlantic & University, and so much more).

Very Respectfully and very proud,

Kurtis R. Wilson

Chief of Operations

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department