February Incidents 2018

As mentioned in last month's entry, the largest recruit class in the history of the JFRD was assembled at the start of the new year and Thursday, February 15 will witness the latter graduate in a ceremony scheduled for 6 PM in the Hopson Auditorium of First Baptist Church, located at 517 North Hogan Street. Congratulations to all 90 new firefighters and the best of wishes for long and successful careers!

Tuesday morning, 13 February, brought about a dispatch in the wake of a reported house fire on Pippin Street north of Everbank Field just before 7 AM. Arriving units discovered a boarded up, single story woodframe house with heavy smoke and visible fire engulfing the rear of the home. Within minutes crews had forced entry and located an adult male inside, in considerable distress, and quickly removed the critically injured victim from the deadly environment to safety. With said individual subsequently transported to UF Health and the fire extinguished, the State Fire Marshal was called to the scene to determine just how this fire started in this sealed up and apparently abandoned residence.  

Although certainly not a common occurrence or a quotidian public safety event, high angle rescue is not unheard of and represents therefore an integral part of the many unique skillsets found amongst the men and women of the JFRD; but when the aforementioned specialty is called upon to rescue three workers dangling precariously along the exterior of a downtown high rise, some 17 stories above ground, then the truly unique nature of the incident in question is truly indisputable and, by proxy, so too the implemented rescue measures. The early evening hours on the 19th of February witnessed the dispatch of units to the BB&T Building at 200 West Forsyth where arriving units discovered two workers from a water proofing contractor in dire straits: their collapsed working platform suspended parallel to the 17th floor now tetering at an extreme angle with one worker frantically holding on, with the other co-worker hanging onto a rope. In no time at all the assembled firefighters, naturally comprised of on duty members of the JFRD Special Operations Team, the trained experts in the field of high angle rescue, had efficiently begun the rescue initiative which would now originate directly from the roof on top of the building. From that particular vantage point the first firefighter proceeded over the top and down the exterior of the building toward that particular worker isolated from the tilted platform, hanging from a rope. Upon making contact and successfully connecting the worker to a rope, both men were safely pulled back to the roof without any further incident. The second rescue was pursued in a similar fashion, with a firefighter lowering himself down to the stranded worker on the listing platform, connecting the individual to a rope and then accompanying the worker for the haul back up to the safety of roof. With the two workers now removed from their potentially fatal predicament, more work remained for the responding crews as the damaged platform needed to be secured. To that end firefighters descended once more down the face of the building, this time equipped with chains to ensure that the platform could be rendered as motionless as possible and remove the threat and danger of it falling to the ground or swaying and damaging the building. Soon thereafter Command was terminated with no injuries and thus no transports reported from the scene, a fact that underscored both the successful nature of the entire operation and the tremendous proficiency of the JFRD Special Operations Team.