Greetings everyone, I hope this email finds you well.
Cooler temps are upon which is a nice break from the heat. Not too much to go
over this week, so let’s get started….
- Dr. Kiely’s retirement party—was last night.
Hopefully you made it to the special event. The 70’ fireboat now has a new
name: The Dr. Robert F. Kiely. Very cool! Attached is a pic.
Congratulations Doc and a huge heart-felt thank you for everything you’ve
done for me personally and for the department. You’re truly one of a kind.
Phenomenal job to Capt. Braddock for organizing the event; the game ball
definitely goes to you on this one…!!! A lot of work went into this one and
it showed!!! Once again you showed up in force JFRD style!
- New TIC’s are in—they are in the process of
being issued now. All truck companies will have one for each FF assigned to
assist in search and rescue. The Squads will have one for each riding
member, and the remaining will go to the busiest engines not located at a
double station. This should elevate our abilities for the whole crew to see
during fire conditions. Thanks to Capt. Reagor and the crew at Ladder 1 B.
- New engines—will be delivered next week.
Training will begin immediately as well as the installation process. The
crews getting the next 24 will be trained prior to the arrival of their
engines and most outfitting will be done by Pierce to limit the time it
takes to put into service once delivered. No more 60 day static testing at
Fleet!
- 10 new Rescues—were ordered last week!
- New outboards—are being moved as an emergency
through Procurement as we speak. Basically the engines are failing faster
than we can repair them. 300 Verados will replace the 350 Yamahas we have
now as parts coming from overseas has caused problems.
- Bailout kits—to date we issued 798 kits to our
troops. Thank you to Lt. Todd Smith and the TRT folks who continue to make
this department harder to kill.
- Attached is a pic of Retired FDNY Chief John
Norman. If you’ve studied for a promotion, you know who he is. He was
here this week presenting a class at FSCJ. In it he talked about Black
Sunday in FDNY and our friend Jeff Cool. He was very proud our
department is issuing these devices to every member.
![](bailout_small.JPG)
- New Fire Station Location and Hydrant Proximity
Tool—is going live to the public. Please take the time to learn how to
utilize this new resource our ITD team developed. This tool will be
expanding with GIS layer data as we move forward and will be used for ISO
purposes. Once JEA populates the data, you will be able to move your cursor
over the hydrant and get information like main size, flow rates and
pressures, and other important information. Want to know the closest
hydrant to an address? Type in the address and the tool will tell you how
many hydrants are within 1000 feet and which fire stations are within 5 road
miles. There is a measuring tool for distances as well. The IC can quickly
determine how far the next hydrant is and therefore how many engines it will
take to complete a relay. It’s very user friendly and was designed not only
for you but to help our citizens and insurance agents find out what their
ISO rating should be based on living within 5 road miles of a fire station
and within 1000 feet of a hydrant. This is one of the most important ISO
projects to date and was managed solely by Lt. Kornegay, my special projects
manager. Well done!!! Here is the link…I suggest you save it to your MDT.
- Ever wanted to know what JFRD looked like in 1986?—In
1986 JFRD had 750 uniform firefighters that went on 88,000 calls that year.
We had 34 engines, 15 rescues, 11 truck companies, 8 district fire chiefs, 2
rescue district chiefs (one added that year), and 10 appointed positions
with 7 division chiefs / director, fire chief, and asst. fire chief. The
total call volume of fires were 5,266 (1068 house fires, 337 multiple
occupancy fires, 76 institutional fires, 334 commercial fires, and 1057
vehicle fires!) Suppression also performed 3630 pre-fire plans. Busy year
for 34 engines companies! Those 15 rescue’s went on over 37,000 runs with
Rescue 6 (now Rescue 2) being the busiest rescue with almost 3600 runs for
the year!
Now let’s see some of the runs you’ve gone on this week:
•
FD22/ W3 2STORY RESIDENCE/ 2045 JAMMES RD/ TGB1/END/JLC
•
FD34/ W3 APT STRUCTURE FIRE/ KENDALL COURT/APT #305/ 10535 LEM TURNER RD/
TGB1/END/JLC
•
W3 COML BLDG/FD51/4932 SUNBEAM RD/GOTTLIEB & ASSOCIATES/IC E51 ON B-1/END
- FD 9/ SINGLE FAMILY RESD STRUCTURE FIRE/ CLAUDIA
SPENCER & EVERGREEN/TG B1/ END
- FD 28/ MVA-EXTRICATION/ 9800 TOUCHTON RD/ 1 TRAPPED
VICTIM/ TG B1/ END
- FD32 TRAFFIC ACCIDENT WITH ONE TRAPPED S I295/OLD
MIDDLEBURG RD.TGB1..MMJ
- Apartment Structure Fire/Shannon Ridge/Apt 9/5141
Shenandoah Ave./W3/TGB1/End
- FD14 TRAFFIC ACCIDENT ONE TRAPPED PARK/CASSAT..TGB1
- FD18 TRAFFIC ACCIDENT ONE TRAPPED MLK JR. PKWY/WILSON
ST.TGB5..
- FD44 2 SIGNAL 7 PATIENTS FOUND BY MAINTENANCE WORKER
AT 10010 BELLE RIVE BLVD ELEMENYS OF BELLE RIVE
- FD35/ TWO TRAPPED TRAFFIC ACD/ I 95 SB @ PECAN PARK /
TGB1/ END/ JLC
- W3/Commercial Structure Fire/Big Red Steam
Cleaning/FD22/1470 Cassat Ave./TGB1/End
- ALERT II/ JIA/ WITH FULL ASGN/ 2 SOB/ TGB5/END/JLC
- ALERT II/ JIA/ TGA1/END/JLC
- FD21/ RESTAURANT STRUCTURE FIRE/ 6680 POWERS AVE/TGB1.
END JLC
- And a few thousand other runs this week!!!
Time to give some thanks…
•
To all of you who participated in our first ever Sea of Blue. So
many people to thank on this one but truly, it wouldn’t have been anything
without you walking. For this first time, in a long time, we all put our
differences aside and came together as one cohesive unit, a brother and
sisterhood. Chief Wyse quoted a FDNY captain at the memorial and I’ll repeat
here for those who couldn’t hear it…”When the public needs help, they call
the fire department. When we need help, we call each other.” Thank you for
showing up to help the families and to help each other. Attached are a couple
of pics from the march…
![](photo342_small.JPG)
•
To R28, R70, E28, E44, L28, L44, T28, F3, R103 on the 0330 MVA on
Touchton Rd. I received many calls on this one and I’ve seen the car.
Excellent job to all the crews who were able to extricate the Pt out alive. (if
you would have seen the car, you would know why I’m writing this)
•
To Station 37 A shift—for inviting me over for breakfast. What a great
way to start your morning. Thank you again!!!
Time for the Quote of the WIR…
•
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man
who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could
have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the
arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly;
who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without
error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows
great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;
who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the
worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall
never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
― Theodore Roosevelt
o
Keep up the good work out there, you’re making
more of a difference than you know. Generationally, you’re making a name for
yourself in the JFRD history books.
•
“I haven't spoken to my wife in years. I didn't want to interrupt her.”—Rodney
Dangerfield
o
I just lol’d out loud on this one…J
Well that’s it for this WIR. The weather this
weekend is supposed to be beautiful. I hope you get to spend some time for
yourself and I hope you spend it with family and friends. Please continue to
have our folks in your thoughts and prayers as a few are truly having a tough
time. As for me, thank you to everyone who text, wrote, or called, it was much
appreciated. And to Shawn Hall and Tracey Davis…you know what you did…
As always, we thank you for who you are, what you do, and
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