Greetings everyone and Happy Independence Day!  I hope this email finds you well.  Not too much going on but we are losing another round of our folks to retirement, which is always good to see and we wish them the best.  I will be off Thursday and Friday on vacation, so I got this out early.

• To Lt. Leroy Brantley, FF. Dewitt Cooper, Lt. Stephen Lee, Capt. Rob Mericle,  Lt. Wayne Miller, Eng. Glen Palmer, Batt. Chf. Bobby Smith, Eng. William Smith, Lt. Thomas Staples—on behalf of the department, I would like to thank you for a job well done.  I have so many great stories and memories of each of you as do many others so I won’t do any injustice by going into detail other than to say this…thank you for all your hard work, dedication, and devotion for protecting and saving the citizens of Jacksonville.  Each of you will be missed and I wish all of you a happy, healthy, and long retirement.

• Vehicle Stabilization Struts—are being issued this week.  A huge thanks to Capt. Ennis and everyone at TSF for all their hard work.  Attached is the document to help the companies who received them.

• Suppression Engineer Openings—current openings were posted this week.  In order to better manage the large transfer and promotional lists coming out, I’m advertising the current openings now and Rescue folks can apply.  I will announce the granted positions in two weeks so you will know if you did not get a position so you can apply for the future ones open due to the Lt’s test and retirements.  We will not transfer until the list is certified.

• Outstanding Reports—Per our SOG, all E-Pro reports need to be completed by the end of your shift.  If for any reason you cannot finish a report, please contact your District / Battalion chief with the issue.  There is a state law requirement on completing the reports and an associated fine for failure to do so.  We’re still working on fixing the dual reports issue.  Might I suggest for training purposes, utilizing the engineer or FF to assist with one of the two reports until this programming change can be made.

• Tropical Storm Arthur—is supposed to strengthen into a hurricane shortly.  This is a little early in the year for hurricanes and certainly we’re not use to them forming so close to our eastern shore.  With that being said, please make sure all your Hurricane Checklist action items are done.  Any discrepancies need to be sent to Gary Daly a.s.a.p.

• Downgrading W-signals—JFRD SOG 401.15.02 Fire Classifications:
  • W1 – One Suppression unit required to handle incident
  • W2 – Two or more Suppression units required to handle incident. If Full Assignment or greater dispatched, first-arriving Engine and Ladder company will handle, unless advised differently by on-scene company(s) or assigned Suppression Chief.
  • W3 – Full Assignment or Maximum Full Assignment required to handle Incident

Time to give some recognition:

• To Chief McElwee and all her staff at the Training Academy—who put together an impressive after action report on the Utsey Rd. incident as well as a new recruit training syllabus. A lot of work goes into putting together a finished product on paper and you could tell they put their blood, sweat, and tears in these…Well done!

• To Lt. Tracy Davis and Lt. Todd Smith—when was the last time you saw a slow driver driving down the road?  This week, those two noticed cars slamming on brakes for a car driving 2 mph down St. John’s Bluff.  As they went around, they realized the driver was having a medical emergency.  What to do?  If you’re 6’4", you run next to the car and hop in the passenger’s side to stop the vehicle as Lt. Davis calls for a Rescue.  Once transported, they secured the vehicle and gave the info to JSO.  Great job and only if I had a video of that for their retirement party!

• To Capt. John Long who graduated the JSO Reserve Academy last night.  Now when his cadaver K9 Wall.E finds a body, he can arrest the person too!  All joking aside, many of you who went through this training know how hard it was.  Congrats to JSO and Capt. Long and his endeavors with the other agency!
  • And thank you to all our JFRD members who volunteer to be members of the JSO Reserves.

• To Sherri Bell, Grace Solberg, Susie Smith, and Elroy Scott (and there have been others)—who have been working diligently on our hydrant reconciliation project.  For those not aware, JFRD and JEA maintain separate hydrant databases.  Soon JEA will be taking over the annual hydrant inspection responsibilities but before they do, we are combining the two databases. This is long and often boring work but has been done with absolute professionalism by our folks.  Lt . Kornegay came up with the project for our ISO rewrite and has handed off to Chief Thomas, who has been put in charge of seeing he project to completion.  Soon, maps will be delivered to your station, so you can quickly help locate the hydrants using your map books.  Once completed, our folks will enter into the system.  A huge thank you to everyone!

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

• W3 APARTMENT STRUCTURE FIRE/ FD 36/5020 CLEVELAND RD/ CLEVELAND ARMS/BLDG B-2/TG B1/END
• W3 APARTMENT STRUCTURE FIRE/FD 19/843 ALDERMAN RD/APT 581/TG B1/END
• FD 13/W3 STRUCTURE FIRE CARPENTER SHOP UNDERNEATH PARKING GARAGE/ BAPTIST MAIN HOSPITAL/800 PRUDENTIAL DR/TG B1/END
• Structure Fire/Laundry Room of Apt Complex/FD30/451 Monument Rd./Madison At Spring Wood/TGB5/End
• W3 SNGL FAM RES/FD51/11025 LIPPIZAN DR/IC E51 ON B-1/END
• MCI LVL 1/MVA EDGEWOOD & KINGSTON/FD26/5 PTS WITH 1 TRAUMA ALERT/IC R105 ON B-5/END
• FD28 W3 Structure Fire Detached Garage 9752 Leahy Rd. TGB1...MMJ

Do you know what the 4^th of July means? Of course you do but did you know this?

• Here are some 4^th of July fun facts:
  • Both Thomas Jefferson and John Adams died on July 4, 1826.
  • Born on the 4^th of July:  Calvin Coolidge, the country's 30th president, was born on Independence Day. Others celebrating birthdays on July Fourth include, Nobel laureate and economist Gerard Debreu, Olympic gold medalist and tennis Hall of Famer Pam Shriver, and current first daughter Malia Obama.
  • July Fourth is the "biggest hot dog holiday of the year," according to TIME magazine, with Americans reportedly consuming about 155 million of them on Independence Day alone.
  • American Bald... Turkey?  In a letter to his daughter Sarah Bache in 1784, Benjamin Franklin wrote that he was displeased that the bald eagle had been chosen as the symbol for the nation. "He is a Bird of bad moral character. He does not get his Living honestly," he wrote. "You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk."  A turkey, Franklin went on to argue, is a far "more respectable" bird. "Turk'y… [is a] true original Native of America," Franklin wrote. "He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a Red Coat on."
  • Due to concerns about cracking the iconic instrument, the Liberty Bell has not been rung since 1846. Instead, every year, to mark the Fourth of July, the 2,000-pound bell is tapped 13 times to signal for bells across the country to start ringing.

So I guess it’s safe to say… Thomas Jefferson and John Adams probably did not die in a car wreck together, born on the 4^th of July is not just another Tom Cruise movie, I know what most of you will be eating this weekend (me too), you really cannot un-ring a bell, and how glad are we Benjamin Franklin didn’t have a say in our national bird / symbol of our freedom decision?  Screaming Turkey’s or  soaring with the gobblers anyone? Lol.

Well that’s it for this WIR.  Please continue to have your thoughts and prayers with our folks as some are truly having tough times.  I hope everyone has a safe and fun holiday weekend and I hope you get to spend it with family and friends eating hotdogs. 

Sometimes we are called on for things not normally assigned to a fire department function.

Yesterday, the crew of E49 responded to a call for an assist a citizen when two ladies were in distress over a trapped duckling.  It would have been easy to drive off and say that is not our responsibility but they went above and beyond for that, I thank you.  Here is a link to the story…

As always, we thank you for what you do, why you do it, and for always showing why you are truly the Best Fire Rescue Department in the Country!

Happy Independence Day and Very Respectfully,

Kurtis R. Wilson

Chief of Operations

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department