Support crew is key to fire fighting, city officials say
BY PAM BRANNON Gulf Breeze News news@gulfbreezenews.com

"It's like with the Air Force. Not everybody can be pilots, but everyone backing up those pilots is needed to help the pilots be able to do their jobs." That's how Gulf Breeze City Fire Chief Shane Carmichael explained the operations of his fire department to Gulf Breeze News last week.

Chief Carmichael said even though not all of his volunteer firefighter force is certified at the Firefighter 1 level, each one is needed to handle jobs at a fire scene. "We have about 30 firefighters on our roster, and about 15 are certified at that level or better. It is usually the younger firefighters that go through the certification process. We have some guys who have been working with the fire department for years and don't care about going through Firefighter 1 certification now. But they have jobs at a scene they can do that are just as important as going into a hot fire."

He said the firefighters who are not certified have gone through training for the various operations on the fire truck, and how to operate the hose apparatus. He said under state law, use at a fire scene of non-certified personnel is permissible as long as they do not operate in "the hot zone". Carmichael said of his 15 non-certified firefighters, eight have already completed the Firefighter 1 course and are waiting for the final live burn and test. Then they will have their certification. "Most of the non-certified personnel are older and have no desire to enter the hot zone and would prefer to carry out support functions," he said. He also pointed to the red reflective signs on their helmets that show they are non-certified to anyone working a fire scene.

He said, "Under (the law) we believe that it is permissible to utilize non-certified personnel in roles such as apparatus operation, rehab, water supply, medical treatment, etc. By utilizing these individuals, it frees up certified personnel to concentrate on direct fire suppression efforts."

Carmichael also said the Midway Fire Chief Stephen Demeter presented him with an automatic aid agreement a few weeks ago that states no firefighters would show up at any Midway Fire scenes from other departments to 'help' that are not certified. "We have automatic aid, which means if we hear a call we go to help automatically. And we have mutual aid, which is when the fire chief from the other district calls for our help. I have not signed that agreement," Carmichael said. "I do not plan to sign it. But we do have a verbal agreement that we will not send any non-certified personnel to a Midway Fire scene, under both automatic aid or mutual aid. So there have already been some calls where we just did not send a truck, because some of our firefighters who showed up for the call were non-certified."

He said they are working under the 'old' automatic aid agreement. "We will not sign the other agreement, even though we have the verbal agreement, because it would impact us overall, on the rest of our operations."

"We are not a paid department, like Midway. I do this as a volunteer and get no pay myself," Gulf Breeze Fire Chief Carmichael said. "I do not want my volunteer firefighters who are not certified to feel humiliated and that it is not worth getting out of bed to run for a fire call because they don't feel valued. We value all our firefighters, and we need every one. And I am afraid by having any other department, like Midway, always questioning if they are 'certified' when they arrive, they will say 'forget it', and we will lose firefighters that we need."

Midway Fire Chief Stephen Demeter said, "The law regarding mutual aid in Florida states that there is a presumption that all firefighters sent in mutual aid will be certified. If they send non-certified firefighters, the incident commander on scene then has to pick and choose who can do what task. Simply put, if you are going to send us firefighters we want them to be able to fight fires." He said if a department has no one available certified, then they will call for another department. And it loses "valuable time" if a chief calls for mutual aid and non-certified firefighters show up and he has to call another department to get the help he needs.

Walter Mayo, of the Florida State Fire College, said, "Florida law allows non-certified firefighters on fire scenes, as long as they don't go into hot zones. But most fire chiefs have enough non-certified firefighters of their own at any fire scene, and they would not be calling for mutual aid from another department unless they needed certified people to work as back up to the firefighters in the hot zone. There is only so much time on those air bottles, and the human body can only take so much heat. A chief will call for extra help from surrounding departments if he needs certified people to be ready to replace the firefighters inside the hot zone. The Florida law says there is a presumption when someone calls for mutual aid that all those responding will be certified. Florida departments are facing this problem of certified vs. non-certified more and more these days, as the law changes."