Deputy Chief Wes Hayes, 2006 Florida Fire Marshall
of the Year
The FETN Family: Polk County Fire and Rescue
Mike Linkins, Deputy Chief of Planning, Safety and Training of
Polk County Fire Rescue in Florida recently described the accomplishments
and the unique challenges their department faces.
Provide
a brief description of your department and the community you serve.
Located
between Orlando and Tampa, the citizens and visitors of Polk County
are served by a network of municipal and county fire stations.
Polk County Fire Rescue operates 28 fire stations serving unincorporated
Polk as well as several of the municipalities through various
inter-local agreements ranging from full-service contracts to
automatic aid agreements.
Challenged with diverse geographical and density issues, our
department ranges from career staffed fire stations to all -volunteer
stations. Under the leadership of Fire Chief David Cash, we currently
operate 19 twenty-four hour staffed stations, four weekday staffed
stations, and six all-volunteer stations. We have 220 employees,
30 part-time firefighters, and about 175 volunteer firefighters
that range in certification from interior combat certified to
associate status.
Our communities range from suburban/industrial to rural. Our
busiest station ran in excess of 3,000 calls in 2006 and our slowest
was less than 100. We currently operate six advanced life support
fire apparatus (non-transport) and are undergoing a consolidation
study to consider merging us with our sister division, Polk County
EMS.
What
makes your department stand out in the community?
One
unique aspect of our department is the geographical size.
Polk County is in excess of 2,000 square miles and presents
many service delivery challenges. In order to meet safety
standards such as the two-in, two-out mandate, our second
and third due engines sometimes have to travel long distances.
Another challenge we face is the dwindling numbers of combat
certified volunteer firefighters.
How
long has your department been training with FETN?
We
have been training with FETN for about five years. FETN
is generally used as supplemental training to our existing
department provided training for career firefighters. This
year, the FETN program will be offered to our volunteers
as well.
What
challenges/accomplishments has your department been faced with?
One
accomplishment has been our ability to construct our own brush
(wildland) firefighting apparatus. Our Support Services Section
has built several of these specialized four-wheel drive units
at a substantial cost savings. We currently have one unit under
construction now.
We also have a significant infrastructure issue as many of our
older fire stations were all-volunteer stations that have been
modified to house 24 hour crews. We are currently faced with the
huge task of updating these stations to address life safety and
other necessary improvements.
What
else would you like to share with other members of the FETN family?
Starting
in August of 2004, the eye of three hurricanes passed over Polk
County within a six week period. Through successful preplanning
and interagency training, the response and recovery phase of these
disasters went pretty well.
In 2006, Deputy Chief Wes Hayes was named the Florida Fire Marshal
of the Year.
Thank you, Chief Mike Linkins and the entire team of
Polk County Fire Rescue in Florida. We are proud to have you as
part of the FETN Family!
_sm.jpg)
Provide
a brief description of your department and the community you serve.
Located
between Orlando and Tampa, the citizens and visitors of Polk County
are served by a network of municipal and county fire stations.
Polk County Fire Rescue operates 28 fire stations serving unincorporated
Polk as well as several of the municipalities through various
inter-local agreements ranging from full-service contracts to
automatic aid agreements. 