Greetings everyone, I hope this email finds you well!  We are finally done with budget and some of us can breathe a sigh of relief.  Not too much to go over this week, so let’s get started!

  • National Fallen Firefighter Memorial—was last week in Colorado Springs.  Here is a pic of our folks who attended the trip and represented the JFRD.

  • New TIC’s—will be delivered the second week in October.  We’ll get them out to you asap.

  • New Pumpers—We leave on Monday to go final the first 4 completed units.  Three weeks later, it’s another trip up for the last four.  Look for the first four to be at the stations within 60 days. 

  • New Rescues—The 4 x4 Dodges are done.   Pics are attached and we are awaiting delivery.  The others are under construction now.  I didn’t know this but they wait till the last minute to sticker the trucks to allow the paint to finish off-gassing.  This reduces bubbles in the striping.  Interesting…
             

  • New vehicles for FY14-15 budget year—the council was gracious enough to budget 18.5  million and some change for 68 new vehicles.  This includes: 24 new engines, 10 new rescues, 6 new ladders, I hazmat, 1 tanker, 8-chiefs trucks, 7 cars, 3 jet skis, 2 ATV’s, and 4 outboards.  The second week in October, once the master blanket order has been populated in Fleet’s budget, we will place an order for all  the units.

  • Bail out training—continues.  We issued our 707th kit as of this week.  For what it’s worth, I sleep better at night knowing each of you has this protection / option. 

  • Tim Tebow and Good Morning America—visited Station 31 this past week…very cool.  Here’s the link in case you missed it. 

  • New SCBA’s—a few should be delivered soon for testing.  We’ll be getting  in touch with those who volunteered for the committee to set up testing.

  • Sea of Blue—don’t forget to tell your friends and family to come watch and thank you to everyone who has put the flyer on their social media outlets!  Attached is another in case you missed it. Click HERE

  • Ocean Rescue—for those who don’t know, in 2007, JFRD took over Ocean Rescue from Parks & Rec.  The main season starts on Memorial Day and ends with Labor day.  Between 40-70 lifeguards are hired each year managed by Brian Stafford, our Ocean Rescue Supervisor.  Here are this year’s stats…

    • 109-first aid, 55-assist’s, 25-rescues, 24-called for Rescue units, 13-lost children assists, 2857-preventative actions taken.
      • Just another busy season for our folks!

 

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

  • FD62 TRAFFIC ACCIDENT ONE TRAPPED SI95/OLD ST.AUGUSTINE RD..TGB1 HAZMAT ALSO RESPONDING
  • FD37 TRAFFIC ACCIDENT ONE TRAPPED ZOO PKWY/BON AIR..TGB1
  • FYI STADIUM COMMUNICATIONS HAS CALLED A MCE..TGA5...END
  • FYI/Traffic Accident/Extrication/Unkwn # of pts/FD50/Starfish Ave. & Beach Blvd./TGB1/End
  • FD50/ TRAPPED TRAFFIC ACD/ BEACH & STATION CREEK RD/ TGB1/END/JLC
  • FD 12/ MVA-EXTRICATION/ HART BRIDGE NB/ TG B1
  • FD43 ONE TRAPPED NORMANDY/US301..TGB1
  • FD16/ ALERT 2/ JIA/ 2400 YANKEE CLIPPER DR./ TGB1/ END/ JLC
  • FD5 BROKEN/CUT GAS LINE UNKNOWN SIZE.. 742 DELLWOOD AVE..TGB1

Time to give some thanks…

  • I want to take this opportunity to recognize Lt. Tator of TL-21-C and his entire crew who were on-duty this past Saturday, September 20 and responded to my mother who was very sick. My parents have lived in FD 21 (8005 Naranja Dr. W)  in the same house that I was born and raised in for well over 50 years. After suffering a heart attack about 7-8 years ago, my mother has had to call on the services of Fire Station 21 on more than a few occasions due to her progressive medical problems relating to her heart attack, including CHF, hypertension, and diabetes.

I called Lt. Tator this past Saturday morning to ask him and his crew to respond to my mom, just as they were about to eat breakfast. They immediately abandoned their meal, along with R-21, and responded to my parent’s home where R-21 ultimately transported her to the hospital. She was admitted to BMC-South and remains hospitalized with severe Pneumonia. While visiting with my mom (and dad) yesterday at the hospital, BOTH of them couldn’t quit telling me about the high level of professionalism that they ALWAYS receive from the JFRD units that respond to their home when called upon, but especially the crews from FS 21 and specifically the crews from this past Saturday. My father said that when they came through the door Lt. Tator immediately comforted him and told him not to worry, that they had the situation under control and they were going to take good care of Mrs. Castleman – and that’s exactly what they did. In my five years as the captain of R-20, I developed a very good working relationship with the C-Shift crews at FS 21. In fact, my former partner (now Lt. Jay Barnhill) and I used to eat dinner with them every C-Shift. Lt. Tator has always shown a personal concern for my mother’s well-being, always taken the time to ask me, "How’s mom doing?" It is that personal concern that goes above and beyond the call of duty and it’s that personal concern that I want to recognize here today.

As a district chief, I have the unfortunate task of processing citizen complaints in a district that just so happens to cover 1/3 of the City of Jacksonville. It seems sometimes that citizens only want to let us know when our people have done something wrong and accolades are few and far between. After hearing my parents brag about Station 21, I felt that this was a clear opportunity for me to recognize the outstanding efforts, not just of one individual, but of an entire station really! They should be commended for their outstanding customer service not only to my mother (and father), but to all of the citizens of the community in which they serve!
    • V/R, Chief Castleman

  • To all the 40 hour folks who work 50 plus hours a week during the last few months helping with this budget.  Nights and weekends were disrupted:  April Mitchell worked from a computer at her daughters softball games on Saturdays and her days off, Liz Henderson who spoke better than I at two City Council meetings on behalf of Fire Comm to tell them about their issues, David Johnson and Capt. Keith Powers who I relied so much on to produce the information presented to Council concerning our fleet issues and then kept TSF going, Lt. Scott Kornegay and Chief McCormick who worked tirelessly in my absence while in City Council, then attended every late night meeting with us.  Same is true for Capt. Jordan who attended every budget hearing as well. This is expected from the Division Chiefs….everyone else went above and beyond once again….we truly couldn’t have done it without you all.

You’re never off duty…

  • I received multiple calls about this one…the first was from my wife who stood and watched everything I’m about to tell you unfold.  The mini-van was our neighbor and she (my wife) was walking our dog’s when it happened…
    • On 9-22-14 at approximately 15:35 hrs., off-duty Eng. Josh Coveli E-13-A was following a full sized pickup truck traveling eastbound on Beach Blvd when it ran a red light at Station Creek Rd. and t-boned a mini-van with 4 passengers at a high rate of speed.  Eng. Coveli pulled over and was quickly approached by the female driver of the mini-van screaming about her children the rear of the vehicle.  Eng. Coveli found one infant injured in the front seat, one child badly injured but conscious in the back seat and another unconscious and not breathing in the rear; both trapped by the collision.  Eng. Coveli reached in and lifted the child head to attempt to clear the airway with success;  the child began agonal respirations at that point.  Off-duty firefighter Mark Narcho, L-18-A, then came up and offered to help.  He took over the airway of the young girl as Eng. Coveli resumed triage of the remaining victims.  Within a minute or two, E-150-B and R-50-B arrived on scene to begin the extrication and patient care protocols.  In all, E-59, R-59, R-58, R-103, L-28, and F-3 worked to bring the situation under control.  Without the swift actions of Eng. Josh Coveli and subsequent intervention by FF Mark Narcho, the outcome for the child not breathing might have been dramatically different.  Just another day in the life of a JFRD firefighter…I couldn’t be prouder of everyone there.
      • For an update, all the children but one remain hospitalized.  She is in stable condition.

Quote of the WIR:

  • "You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them."—Maya Angelou
  •  "I’m on a whiskey diet…I’ve lost three days already." –  Tommy Cooper
    • Is that why weekends go by so fast? Lol…

Well that’s it for this WIR. Please continue to keep your thoughts and prayers with our folks as some are truly having a tough time.  We’re looking forward to great FY14-15 as JFRD is once again on the move in a positive direction.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and I hope you spend it with family and friends.  No football references as it’s been kind of rough these past few weeks.  I believe the Beer-Pong Championship is on some channel I never watch or I’ll watch another re-run of Caddyshack-- Ty Webb: "Don't be obsessed with your desires Danny. The Zen philosopher Basha once wrote, 'A flute with no holes, is not a flute. A donut with no hole, is a Danish."…very true…

As for the mouse in the wall, what took one day to kill, has now been killing me for two weeks.  We (Lt. Crawford SQ-37-B) and I cut a hole in the wall and extricated the first body.  Unfortunately, there’s another  as the smell has become worse.  I’m pretty sure it’s a nutria that’s lodged it’s dead body in my shower wall.  Don’t know what a nutria is?  Go to station 44.  It’s either that or a large wildebeest guessing by the smell…holy cow… :/

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

Very repsectfully,

Kurtis R. Wilson

Chief of Operations

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department