Greetings everyone, I hope this email finds you well.  It’s been a long week in Wisconsin signing off on the first 4 pumpers and working on our next purchase approved in this year’s budget.  I’m out of the loop this week, so this should be a short WIR...let’s get started.
 

·         New Engines—the first four are done (4, 22, 24, 62) and will be delivered to TSF by 10-20.  The next group will be finished within a few weeks.  I think the Apparatus Committee hit a home run on these units.  Here’s a list of all the new engine replacements:

o   This batch (4, 22, 24, 62, 16, 28, 31, 58)  Engines 46, 49, 48, 23 will be placed in Pierces temporarily.

o   Next batch (1, 2, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 21, 23, 26, 30, 32, 36, 37, 42, 44, 49, 55, 56, 57)  Then E57 will go to 46, E2 to 48, E55 to 45, and E1 to 33.

o   I hope this helps.  Delivery of the next 24 engines should be in June-August.

·         New Ladders—L9, L18, L30, L10, L44, L31—Won’t be delivered until November-December of next year. 

·         New Rescues—David Johnson and Capt. Powers leave next week to final the first two, the other 8 are under construction.  If all is well we will place another order for the 10 budgeted for this year. 

o   Here are the Rescues coming in two months: R20, R43, R40, R71, R62, R2, R46, R24, R13, R52

§  The next group will be: R1, R4, R45, R7, R22, R23, R27, R33, R50, R53

·         New HazMat 7 and new Tanker 31 are being processed now.

·         New Ribbons—attached is the pic of what our new ribbons look like.  This is Lt. Lewis E-21-A’s.  Really dresses up our jackets and highlights your training and accomplishments during your career. 

·         Sea of Blue is next Friday—get your t-shirts while they last, proceeds go to the Bishop Fund, and you have the very first edition ever.  Station 4 and Station 1 have them.  Also, the Patriot Guard Riders have notified us they are going to stand with Flags and honor you as you walk.  This is very cool as usually, they reserve this honor for our fallen troops.  Chief Mote and myself will conduct the drawing on Monday to let the B shift crews know who is going to be allowed to come walk.  Make sure to tell your family and friends to come watch.

·         Dr. Kiely’s retirement party—is October 16^th at the Landing.  This is truly going to be a memorable event.  Please, even for our new hires who haven’t had the opportunity to meet and become friends with our Medical Director for the last 32 years, take the time to come and pay your respects and meet some new faces.  This is how you build lifelong friendships on this job.

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

·         FD12/ CAR VS APT BLDG/ COLONIAL POINT / APT 221/ 5201 ATLANTIC BV/ TGB1/END/JLC

·         Residential Structure Fire/Single Family/Single Story Residence/W3/FD10/4024 Gilmore St./TGB5/End

·         250lb propane tank leak at a residential structure/FD Jax Bch/All info received from TL21/F9 adv send only E21, TL21, Haz21 and R21/TGB1/End

·         Saddle tank of semi-trk leak/Unkwn amount of fuel/Hazmat Team 7 and F7 responded/F9 notified/TGB13/End

·         Traffic Accident/Extrication/1 pt/FD52/I295 N & Roosevelt/TGB1/End

·         FD14 TRAFFIC ACCIDENT CAR VS TRAIN ROOSEVELT AND SAN JUAN..CSX ADVISE NO TRAIN DERAILMENT..E14 CANCELLED RESCUE..TGA3

·         Structure Fire/Single Family/Single Story Residential Structure/W3/FD28/2638 Barrett Rd./TGB1/End

·         FD18 W3 STRUCTURE FIRE POSSIBLY ONE INSIDE 4305 WILSON ST..TGB1

·         FD2/ TWO TRAPPED TRAFFIC ACD AT 1217 N PEARL ST/ TGB1/ END/ JLC

·         ALERT 2/ JIA/ 2400 YANKEE CLIPPER DR/ BLACK HAWK 10 MILITARY/ TGB1/ END/ JLC

·         FD35 W3 STRUCTURE FIRE SINGLE FAMILY RESIDENCE 14210 HOLLINGS ST. TGB1..RECEIVING MULTIPLE CALLS

Time to give some thanks:

·         To Capt. Bunky Ennis, who just had his 35^th anniversary with JFRD this week (congrats!), Lt. Joe Kinstle, and Eng. Matt Waters, who helped all of us with all the testing and inspection of the first four units.  That freed up time for us to work on placing the order for our next units.  Spending time telling war stories with Capt. Powers, Capt. Ennis, Lt. Kinstle, and Eng. Waters made me feel like a fireman again.  Thank you as that was some much needed therapy.

Attention All Firefighters:  I currently have two FF openings at L44B (non-transfer spot) and one at L28A and L28B.  Once you promote to Engineer, Lt. and Capt., truck company spots are very hard to come by based on seniority.  Now is the time to broaden your knowledge base about firefighting to include truck company work.  L28 and L44 are busy truck companies for JFRD and will only get busier as we go along.  Please submit a request in RMS or email me and I will transfer you as soon as you’re ready.

You’re never off duty…

Lately, we’ve had a string of off-duty firemen being in the right place at the right time and making a difference by saving someone’s life.  This past week our Medical Director Dr. Elias pulled up on a cardiac arrest at 3 am after leaving his shift at Baptist ER.  He even ended up intubating the patient; talk about jumping right in!  Not sure of the outcome but great stuff either way. Go Doc!

Brotherhood above all is an ethos Eng. Jason Kerr has lived by his whole career.  For those of you who don’t know him, don’t worry, one day you will.  Last night, that changed to Stacey above all as they tied the know and got married at the Casa Marina Hotel in Jax Bch.  I couldn’t trump Todd Johnson who flew 19 connecting flights out of Afghanistan to be there but I did have a 14 hour day of flying to get back time for the ceremony.  It was worth every miserable coach-class minute to be there to see them and to see my wife in a stunning blue dress.  I did have lunch in New York though and that was pretty cool.  Congratulations to Jason and Stacey Kerr on their marriage.

Now time for the Quote of the WIR:

·         “A pint of sweat will save a gallon of blood." –General George S. Patton, Jr.

o   Continue to make yourself hard to kill by training and looking out for each other.  Fire season is again once upon us. Truth is it felt like it never ended.

o   “Marriage is the bond between a person who never remembers anniversaries and another who never forgets them”. –Ogden Nash

§  Welcome to the club brother!

Well that’s it for this WIR.  Please continue to have your thoughts and prayers with our folks as some are truly having a rough time.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and I hope you spend it with family and friends.  As for me, the Alabama vs. Ole Miss is the game to watch on Saturday.  Won’t tell you who I hope wins as to not jinx my favorite but if you’ve seen the movie Blindside then you might have a clue…same coach.  So my wife just left to go get a small black handbag fo Kerr’s party today.  She says “see, I can’t hold this other one under my arm”.  She comes home and says “look what I got, its beautful!”  I said its brown!  She said she needed one of those too.  Guess what, this one is too big to hold under her arm as well.  Go figure…lol

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

Very respectfully,

Kurtis R. Wilson

Chief of Operations

Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department