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WMFR staff recounts hurricane response

WMFR staff recounts hurricane response

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, West Manatee Fire Rescue.

MANATEE COUNTY – After Hurricane Milton passed by the area on Oct. 9, some of the first people stepping out to assess damage and see what could be done to help were the crews from West Manatee Fire Rescue.

During the storm, Chief Ben Rigney said district staff operated their own version of an emergency operations center, answering more than 400 calls.

Once weather conditions deteriorated to the point that first responders couldn’t respond to emergency calls, staff said they had to triage calls, trying to talk people through things like evacuating. After the storm passed, a team of two people began calling everyone back who had called the district during the storm to make sure they were safe and see if they still needed emergency attention now that crews were able to resume service.

During Hurricane Helene, which passed just days prior to Hurricane Milton, Rigney and Deputy Chief Jay Johnson worked in the Manatee County Emergency Operations Center.

As water flooded homes during Hurricane Helene, WMFR responded to 252 calls, Rigney said. The primary issues as a result of that storm, he said, were fires caused by water getting into electrical outlets and large batteries, such as those on golf carts. Even though some people put batteries in higher places, such as on top of refrigerators, Rigney said they still became inundated with salt water when the refrigerators toppled from the storm surge, causing fires to spark.

Johnson said during Hurricane Helene, the district was able to evacuate 120 people from Cortez using boats and high water vehicles.

Though WMFR staff elected to stay for Hurricane Helene in each of the district’s three stations, Rigney said they evacuated Stations 2 and 3 in Cortez and Holmes Beach, respectively. Though each station received some roof damage from Milton, he said no firefighters or first responders were injured and the district didn’t lose any equipment except for a few tires.

Rigney thanked not just the district’s staff but also the community for their response and resilience during and after both hurricanes.

WMFR presents Phoenix Awards

WMFR presents Phoenix Awards

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, West Manatee Fire Rescue.

MANATEE COUNTY – Staff and commissioners at West Manatee Fire Rescue are celebrating 10 lives saved as they presented Phoenix Awards and a Civilian Service Award.

The district bestows Phoenix Awards on staff members who respond to an emergency where the patient is in cardiac arrest and that patient not only has a pulse and is breathing again when transferred to a medical facility but also is able to recover from the incident. Over a one-year period, WMFR staff had 10 of those incidents allowing for the patients to successfully recover and leave the hospital, including one where a private citizen responded before first responders could get to the scene, helping to save one man’s life after a boat fell on him.

The recipients of the Phoenix Awards were firefighter/medic Jerrod Apple with two awards, firefighter/medic John Balzer, firefighter Nathan Bergbom, firefighter William Bowen, firefighter/medic Casey Fischbach, firefighter Matthew French with two awards, firefighter/medic Gabriel Gonzalez with two awards, firefighter Aston Jasinski, firefighter Gavin Johnston, firefighter Sarah Joseph, firefighter/medic Clayton Lease, Capt. James Leigh, firefighter Dane Miller, firefighter/medic David Miller, firefighter Zackary Misiura, firefighter Chris O’Kelley, firefighter Max Pollock, firefighter/medic Aaron Reese, firefighter Tyler Snyder, Lt. Daniel Tackett, firefighter Jeffrey Taylor with two awards, and firefighter/medic William Thomas.

Private citizen Steve Gulash received the district’s Civilian Service Award after jumping into a canal to rescue Ryan Cahill, who was struck by a falling boat when a cable on a boat lift snapped.

WMFR presents Phoenix Awards
The recipient of WMFR’s Civilian Service Award, Steve Gulash, is thanked by Ryan Cahill for saving his life after Cahill was hit by a falling boat. – Kristin Swain | Sun

“The first week in May, I’m standing on a lift around a boat, up in the air, helping my father-in-law get it ready for hurricane season,” Cahill recalled. “We’re up about 8 feet above the water and the cable snapped. A 10,000-pound boat hit me and broke my arm, broke my knee, broke both my shoulder blades, 50 stitches in my head and four vertebrates. This was just four months ago.”

The Kalamazoo, Michigan resident said the Sept. 10 meeting was the first time that he met the man who saved his life after he fell in the water.

Cahill said that the doctors could not believe that he recovered. He said his family was called to come and say their goodbyes but after several days on a ventilator in the intensive care unit, he began to improve and was able to go home and has made a full recovery from his injuries.

“The impact that you made on my family, my kids, everybody that knows me, I’m forever connected with you going forward and so will they be and thank God for that and thank God for you. Thank you,” Cahill said to Gulash, presenting the award to the man who saw him go in the water and reacted quickly enough to save his life. Firefighters said that when they arrived, Gulash was holding Cahill above the water, and it took six people to pull him out of the canal due to the depth of the water to the height of the seawall.

Cahill said his response was a reaction to all his training as a coach and in law enforcement. He said he felt honored to receive the award among firefighters who stepped up every day to help save lives. “You guys are awesome,” he said.

Fire assessment rates set to increase

Fire assessment rates set to increase

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, West Manatee Fire Rescue.

MANATEE COUNTY – Fire assessment rates will be increasing for residents and business owners in the West Manatee Fire Rescue district.

Though rates in WMFR’s district could go up as high as 6.7%, the assessment rate for the 2023-24 fiscal year is expected to increase by 4%, or about $13.42 for the average homeowner.

Commissioners and staff met on April 18 for a mid-year budget workshop prior to the board’s regular monthly meeting. During the meeting, Chief Ben Rigney gave commissioners three rate proposals for the new fiscal year set to begin on Oct. 1 – a 0%, 4% or 6.7% increase. Rigney recommended the 4% increase to allow for additional funds to be collected through tax assessment revenue to help fund district needs, primarily the addition of nine new staff members.

The planned new hires include six firefighters – two additional people per shift with one of the new firefighters stationed on Anna Maria Island – two new fire inspectors and a financial clerk who was just hired as support staff for the district’s fire prevention bureau.

The two new fire inspectors would work to help with inspections of vacation rental properties in WMFR’s district, an initiative planned to begin in October. Inspectors will be operating under the Florida Fire Prevention Code and looking for any potential dangers to life or safety on the properties. Fire Marshal Rodney Kwiatkowski said that inspectors will operate independently of any vacation rental inspection or certificate programs already in place on the Island, though he added that they would try to work with all city code compliance/enforcement personnel to not overlap efforts and inconvenience property owners.

The increase in assessment also covers the cost of increases in insurance and planned raises, among other administrative items for the district. The district’s assessment rates are based on the size of a building on a property or a flat rate if the property is vacant, not the property’s value. With a 4% increase, income from assessment rates would increase an estimated $382,482 in the 2023-24 fiscal year from $9,562,071 to $9,944,554.

District property owners will see the increase on their TRIM notices this fall if it is approved by a vote of fire commissioners during the board’s May meeting.

Currently, district property owners with a 2,000-square-foot home pay $336.22 per year for fire and rescue services through the district when they pay their tax bill. With a 4% increase, that amount would rise to $349.63, an increase of $13.42.

The owner of a 2,000-square-foot commercial property paid $753.19 to the district in the 2022-23 fiscal year. That number would increase to $783.32 if the 4% increase is approved, a jump of $20.13.

Commissioners are expected to vote on the proposed assessment rate increase during a May 16 meeting at the district’s administration building.

WMFR board considers building construction

WMFR board considers building construction

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, West Manatee Fire Rescue.

BRADENTON – West Manatee Fire Rescue commissioners are considering building a new administration building, and they’ve narrowed down potential lots to purchase to two thanks to the help of consultant Bob Gause.

During a May 21 work session, Gause presented commissioners with a report on four available lots that removed two of them from the running – one next door to the district’s temporary offices at Palma Sola Presbyterian Church and another adjacent to King Middle School. Gause said the lot adjacent to the church property is partially used for stormwater retention and wouldn’t be of sufficient size to house an administration building and necessary parking. With the Manatee County School Board unwilling to part with the King Middle School adjacent lot, that choice also was eliminated.

The two options left to commissioners are the old dentist office on Third Avenue across from the church property and an undeveloped lot behind the Fountain Court Shopping Center where Bealls is located on Manatee Avenue.

Commissioners asked Chief Tom Sousa and Chief Ben Rigney to continue looking into the two lots and meet with the owners or their Realtors to see what price the district could get each location for. The undeveloped lot behind the shopping center has frontage on 63rd Street and is 1.88 acres, priced at $295,000. Because the site is undeveloped, Gause said it would require the installation of a lift station and directional boring to gain access to sewer utilities.

The old dentist office site is smaller at 0.65 acres and is priced at $525,000, including the existing office building which would need to be torn down to accommodate a new administration building. The bonus of acquiring this lot, Rigney said, is that it might be possible to share a generator with the nearby WMFR Station 1 on 67th Street.

No matter which lot commissioners choose, the building they’re considering is planned to be a hardened building that could potentially serve as a westside emergency operations center in the event of a hurricane. If commissioners choose to build a hardened building, it could also be created to withstand winds of up to 200 miles per hour.

WMFR’s other two fire stations, Stations 2 and 3, are both in flood plains and would have to be evacuated in the event of a hurricane, leaving Station 1, and potentially the administration building, as the only places to store both response teams and equipment during a storm event and in the aftermath if the other two stations were damaged or inaccessible.

District resident Derek Warner stepped up to offer commissioners his opinion as a former fire chief. Warner was a part of a team that responded to New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He and other first responders from around the country were the ones who orchestrated cleanups, rescues and investigations in a place that was foreign to them after the city’s first responders were scattered due to the storm.

“You have to think about who you want running your disaster – you or people like me who don’t know your situation or community,” he said.

Only a couple of stations and a few pieces of fire equipment in New Orleans survived the hurricane, he noted.

With first responders scattered and unable to respond to emergencies, Warner said the city had to rely on people who were just coming to New Orleans and didn’t have the knowledge that local emergency workers had.

“You want to be in on this,” Warner advised. “You want to be the decisionmakers.”

He encouraged commissioners to not only consider building a hardened structure but one large enough that it could accommodate fire crews, EMS crews, local law enforcement and provide additional areas to store supplies and equipment.

WMFR commissioners are currently considering building a structure around 5,000 square feet or less with the possibility of an additional warehouse-type structure to house additional fire equipment if necessary.

The administration building discussion will continue on June 18 at the next WMFR commission meeting.

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