The Lake Wales Fire Department Has Come Far

Our Lake Wales Fire Department has come a long way since it was established in 1916. Let’s review this critically important department and examine a relatively new service, the department’s paramedic program.

Personnel

The Lake Wales Fire Department has 27 professional fire fighters. Every firefighter is also certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), and six firefighters are certified as Paramedics – an advanced level of certification.

Twenty-four firefighters work in shifts – 24 hours on, 48 hours off, which is a fire service standard. There are 8 firefighters assigned to each shift. Three department members typically work a “normal” work schedule: The Fire Chief, the Fire Marshall, and the Fire Prevention Specialist.

Stations

Our Fire Department operates out of two stations. The main station (station 1) is located on Central Ave in front of City Hall at Sharp Street. This station opened in 2000 when the Fire Department moved from the previous headquarters in old City Hall, further east on Central, at Second Street. The Fire Department had been located at old City Hall since in opened in 1928.

In May 2005 the Fire Department opened Station 2 on Thompson Nursery Road, just west of US 27. As soon as funding is available, the City plans to construct a permanent fire station building for station 2 in the northern area of the City.

Services

Our Fire Department answers over 2,700 calls per year. Of that number about 200 are fire calls. The remainder are medical calls, including vehicle accidents and other types of rescue calls. Vehicle accidents sometimes require the use of the department’s specialized equipment to extricate persons who are trapped in heavily damaged vehicles. All department personnel have received special training in this type of rescue as well as other rescue operations. The department’s average response time is between 4.5 to just over 5 minutes.

Paramedic Program

We live in a very large county. Lake Wales accounts for 14 square miles of the 2,010 square miles that make up Polk County. Our county is the fourth largest county in the state, and the ninth largest in population with over 561,000 residents.

Ambulance service is provided throughout the county by the county government. There are 29 ambulances with paramedics responding to over 75,000 events per year. The ambulances serving Lake Wales are not located in the city limits but are stationed east of town and west of town near the airport. For medical calls requiring an ambulance, our Lake Wales firefighters almost always arrive on the scene first.
Prior to March of last year, our Lake Wales firefighter/EMT’s provided basic life support at the scene of a medical emergency until the ambulance arrived. EMT’s are trained and licensed to provide basic life support, which includes patient assessments, taking vital signs, utilizing advanced airway devices to secure an airway, and operating an automatic external defibrillator to correct lethal heart arrhythmia during a cardiac arrest.

In March of 2008 our fire department started its advanced life support emergency service. Our department has 6 paramedics, with two assigned to each shift. Our paramedics are:

• Paul Byrd


• Lashon Johnson


• Roy Wilkinson


• Dean Copson


• Brian Draper


• Shad Smith

Paramedics are capable of providing a much higher level of medical care and can perform a more comprehensive patient evaluation. Paramedics can utilize more advanced airway devices by intubating patients in respiratory distress, starting IVs to administer drugs and fluids, and treat a wide array of problems such as patients with burns or severe trauma. Paramedics also treat diabetic patients, and monitor, detect, and treat cardiac arrhythmia in the event of a heart condition.

In addition to our Lake Wales Fire Department, several other fire departments such as Winter Haven, Lakeland, and Polk County have begun training their firefighter/emergency medical technicians as paramedics. This is a huge increase in the level of service provided at a fraction of the cost for additional ambulances and staff.

Paramedics are required to complete 16 weeks of EMT training prior to beginning the program. The training program includes one year of college, 470 hours on an ambulance, and 120 clinical hours in an emergency room, followed by a state exam. The tuition cost is $3,600 to attend the program.

As funding is available our department will be training additional paramedics. Congratulations to everyone involved in this progressive, life-saving program!

Note: Fire Chief Jerry Brown assisted with this article.

Service Upgrades in the Fire Department

The City Commission has approved major service upgrades that have been implemented by the Lake Wales Fire Department over the past two years, and more are on the way!

In May 2005, a second fire station was opened in a temporary location on Thompson Nursery Road just west of US 27. This station was opened to reduce response times to the growing northern areas of the city. We are working with a developer who intends to donate 1.5 acres on Chalet Suzanne Road for a permanent station in the future.

In February 2006, our first ladder truck went into service. The ladder has a special platform enclosure and elevates up to 70 feet high! It is used to combat fires that need an elevated water stream. One such fire occurred downtown at the corner of Wetmore and Orange in a two-story building being remodeled for a funeral home. With the advanced firefighting capability provided by the ladder truck, the fire was confined to that building. Our city also has many two- and three-story apartment buildings that house families with young children, as well as senior citizens. Our firefighters and officers have become very proficient at operating the truck and value the additional rescue ability that the ladder truck provides.

Earlier this year the department instituted an engine company inspection program. One of the biggest problems that growing communities like ours has is in the area of fire inspections and fire prevention. The Fire Marshal is very busy reviewing plans for new buildings, and, unfortunately, the older buildings are more likely to experience fires rather that newer buildings with modern sprinkler systems. Fire inspections have now been transferred to the Lieutenants on each shift, who were given a salary incentive to carry out this additional duty. Each Lieutenant has a fire inspector certification and completes inspections every Thursday. The crew creates a drawing of the building, which is completed on a computer at the main station and added to the laptop computers kept on the fire engines and in the Deputy Chief’s command vehicle. Every restaurant in the city has been inspected, and convenience stores and gas stations are next.

The department is also moving ahead with increasing the level of rescue service from "Basic Life Support" to "Advanced Life Support." At present, all of the department members are certified Emergency Medical Technicians as well as certified firefighters. Six of our firefighters are taking additional training to become "Paramedics," the certification that is commonly held by ambulance personnel. Advanced Life Support basically brings the life saving equipment from a hospital emergency room to a home or accident scene until the ambulance arrives. Over 80% of our emergency responses are related to medical emergencies and vehicle accidents, and our fire department vehicles almost always arrive before the ambulance. The only cost related to this service upgrade is the salary increase for the additional duties taken on by the six paramedics. All of the costs for medical equipment, drugs, supplies and the oversight of a medical director will be paid by Polk County.

The department also provides public education. Please call the main fire sation at 678-4203 to make arrangements for Fire Prevention and Safety Specialist Johnny Harris to make a presentation.

Fire Chief Jerry Brown extensively contributed to this article.