January Incidents 2020

On Friday morning, January 3rd and just after 4 AM, JFRD units were called into service to the report of 'one down, several ill' at the Baytree Apartments compound just off Baymeadows Road. Upon arrival, crews discovered that ten people living in one apartment had been exposed to abnormally high levels of carbon monoxide originating from a charcoal grill set up and activated inside of that residence. 8 individuals, 5 of the aforementioned being pediatric patients, would subsequently be transported to Baptist Medical with the two remaining utilizing a POV to arrive at the same destination. Firefighters checked adjacent apartments for carbon monoxide levels and discovered in the process excessive values in two separate units, utilzing fans to eventually remove the lethal, odorless product from the dwellings.

It didn't take long for the new year 2020 to provide the Department with an extremely challenging fire, as units were called to the under construction apartment complex known as the Fusion Apartments near Baymeadows Road during the pre-dawn hours on Sunday, the 12th of January. As the first crews approached the general area, the large, ominous and incandescent glow along the horizon provided the firefighters with their first glimpse of what would eventually become a Third Alarm response incoporating well over 100 firefighters and assorted apparatus to combat and, eventually, quell the raging inferno. The vacant, four story structure had flames visible from virtually every opening and angle, and crews had to scramble to ensure that adjacent exposures of residential structures in nearby Hampton Park were protected and remained unimpacted by the fire. After nearly four hours of concerted effort, primarily the use of aerial ladder pipes to 'surround and drown' the flames, the incident was finally called under control, leaving behind in its wake a completely unrecognizable heap of charred debris that once was a promising apartment complex: the only remaining evidence of the latter a concrete encased elevator shaft. The State Fire Marshal's office was called to the scene to perform the investigation, with the preliminary damage estimates in the vast range of millions of dollars.