Indialantic Fire Rescue

Monthly Report for April 2007

The fire department responded to 72 calls for the month of April bringing our total calls to date to 315. Last year we were at 199 calls. See page 2 for breakdown.

The volunteers had regular training each Wednesday and a business meeting was held on April 4th. Regular fire department training was held on April 11, 18, and 25. Training consisted of EMS - (Backboarding), and fire hose care, and vehicle extrication.

Volunteer hours were 471 hours of standby, 147 hours of training and 16.5 hours administrative support.  We are still looking for new members to improve our volunteer resources. This represents a cost savings of $9750 in estimated salary. Full time staff accrued 33.5 hours physical training and 194 hours of classroom training time.

Chief Macdonald attended the following meetings: April 4th Volunteers business meeting; April 10th and 11th National Incident Management System class (ICS 400); April 12th Space Coast Fire Chiefs Association meeting at Rockledge EOC; April 12th a meeting with the National Weather Service and Forestry; April 18th Fire Operations meeting in Rockledge; April 19th the NIFRS class in Cocoa Beach; and April 25, 26, and 27 Public Fire and Life Safety conference in Orlando.

The new Via-Radios are in and have been programmed and distributed to our staff. These radios will be used for paging out volunteers and providing a means of contact with the volunteers and paid staff in the event of an emergency. The radios are also available to our citizens so they may receive up to date information from the town in the event of an emergency or other important messages. The citizens will not receive the same alerts sent to our staff but can receive NOAA radio alerts and informative messages from the town in the event of an emergency such as hurricane or bad weather. Evacuation information or even generic announcements can be sent via this system. The cost for the radio is $100 and there are no hidden or annual costs to the consumer. The consumer owns the radio and there is no cost to the town to send messages. It is hoped that each homeowner in Indialantic will purchase one of these radios to provide immediate warnings in the event of a local emergency. With the recent issues involving a tornado and the lack of warning, this unit would be an exceptional way to warn the public of impending danger.

Chief Macdonald attended the Public Fire and Life Safety Conference in Orlando this month and some of the areas of training included the importance of residential fire sprinklers and the minimal costs to install sprinklers in new construction. The additional safety provided and the reduction in fire insurance rates more than offset the cost of installation. Also in the class Florida Forestry provided an interactive DVD for instruction in making your property Firewise, and there was information on working with disabilities and fire prevention. The conference was extremely informative and provided a considerable amount of information that I was able to bring back to the department.