Paul Dezzi: Firehouse happenings

South Key fire station:

“An assessment is being done to the building because we have some potential structural issues with it. We hope to hear soon if we can remodel it or need to rebuild it. Ideally, the station needs both male and female bathrooms, showers, locker rooms and bedroom facilities.”

Training:

“In August, all of our firefighter/paramedics need to go through CPR and advanced cardiac life support classes. We go through two days’ worth of classes to get us up to speed on everything from airway control to medication and dosage requirements. Our medical director, Dr. Steven Newman, who just moved to Longboat Key, will oversee the training. We’re also having employee training for the use of new automatic external defibrillators we’re getting this year in the budget.”

Dispatch switch:

“We’re looking at switching the dispatch service to Sarasota County in January. To save us money, Sarasota County Fire Rescue is giving us their old radios when the switch is made until a new radio system that’s compatible with the radios we already have is in effect in the spring of 2017.”

Hiring: 

“We’ve lost one of the six (firefighter/paramedics) that are the leaving the department for retirement. We will post the other five positions in November and have some overlap before those guys retire so we can train the new guys. The new guys will be hired in February and March. It’s going to be a busy time for us and there will be a lot of training. And that’s a good thing. New guys bring new technology and thoughts and ideas and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

Proposed medical center for the Key:

“Residents want to stay on the Key as long as possible and would rather not go into town for a medical issue. We witness that all the time. A medical center helps keep people on the island and provide services we don’t currently have.”

Disaster response updates:

“The town manager asked me earlier this year to oversee and update the emergency management side of the town. I’ve been working with department heads to update all of the department hurricane response plans. This effort involves working with both Manatee and Sarasota counties. Everybody in the town has a role to play if a storm heads this way, and we have to have every detail in place, including who is responsible for grabbing paper files in offices that we don’t want to lose to a storm. We have both residents and town employees that have hurricane amnesia because it’s been so long since we’ve experienced a storm. We can’t be complacent.”