Manatee County task force initiated to strengthen disaster response

For the past 12 years, East Manatee Fire Rescue has been building a technical rescue team.

Technical rescue teams perform beyond the regular duties of a fire department. Members respond to swift water rescues and structural collapses, among other complex emergencies. 

Paul Wren, who will succeed Lee Whitehurst as chief in January 2027, said East Manatee Fire Rescue was at a point where the team had to either merge with another team or create its own team. That was until a bigger, better offer came along. 

East Manatee Fire Rescue will be joining a countywide, state-designated task force that was approved for $500,000 of funding by Manatee County commissioners June 16. 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

The money was reallocated from indigent patient care within the general fund. When uninsured patients are treated at local hospitals, the hospitals are reimbursed at the Medicaid or Medicare rate out of that fund. 

Director of Public Safety Jodie Fiske said the fund was barely touched last year, so even without the $500,000, the fund is still healthy enough to cover the costs of indigent care moving forward.

The $500,000 will not be immediately spent. Instead, it offers proof to the state that the task force is capable of self-funding in terms of supplying the necessary equipment and training.

The state pays expenses when the task force actually is deployed. Manatee County or the fire districts won't have to wait on reimbursements from the Federal Emergency Management Agency if an emergency occurs. Instead, the state will be the one to wait for FEMA reimbursements.

Manatee County will be Florida’s 11th Urban Search and Rescue Task Force. The first eight task forces were state funded in terms of equipment and training. Fiske said the state doesn’t have the “bandwidth” currently to fund more task forces, but Florida CFO Blaise Ingoglia has been clear that he wants to see “exponential additional state funding.”

Up to this point, Manatee County's fire districts have taken on the brunt of the expenses for specialty equipment and training.

Joel Baker, assistant chief for North River Fire District, offered commissioners an idea of what training costs. The last building collapse technician class the district hosted cost about $75,000, and that was one out of 12 required classes. 

Baker said about $15,000 of “consumables,” such as concrete and lumber, could be needed for just one training. East Manatee Fire Rescue has relied on many donations of raw materials over the years.

Fiske noted that Baker and others within Manatee County are instructors, so training would cost even more if it wasn’t all done in-house. The $500,000 is now set aside for future training and equipment needs.

Wren said East Manatee Fire Rrescue has trained staff members in each of the five main disciplines of Urban Search and Rescue — vehicle machinery rescue, trench rescue, confined space rescue, high angle rope rescues and structural collapse — plus swift water rescue and large animal rescue. 

East Manatee Fire Rescue owns some specialty equipment, as well, including an air/light truck (for supplemental lighting and refilling breathing apparatus) and a 20-foot Special Mission Tender rescue trailer (for storing equipment used in structural collapses, vehicle machinery rescues and trench rescues). 

Photo by Lesley Dwyer

EMFR’s resources will now be combined with resources from other districts — Bradenton Fire Department, North River Fire District, West Manatee Fire Rescue, Cedar Hammock Fire Rescue, South Manatee Fire Rescue and South Manatee Fire Rescue HazMat Team.

The task force has created an inventory of every piece of specialty equipment across Manatee County if disaster strikes, and there’s no waiting for help to come from outside Manatee County. 

“Within minutes of opening up the roads for search and rescue after a storm, the task force is here,” Fiske said. 

Wren noted that during the 2024 hurricane season, Task Force 3 was deployed to Manatee County to assist with swift water rescues. 

Wren was too busy in the operations center to remember exactly how long it took for the task force to respond, but Task Force 3 is a Tampa Bay task force, so its members would have to travel from Tampa Fire Rescue, St. Petersburg Fire Rescue and Hillsborough County Fire Rescue versus being right here in Manatee County.

Baker said over 400 residents in Lakewood Ranch and Parrish were rescued from flooding after Hurricane Debby in August 2024. 

Task Force 11 will be the first single-county task force. Not only will it serve Manatee County during disasters, it can also be deployed to other counties in need. 

When deployed, Baker said the task force has to be able to mobilize and self-sustain for up to three weeks.

Securing the $500,000 was the last step before bringing the task force to the state for an audit and designation, which could take up to six months.