Monroe County Fire Chief RL Colina joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the county.
While our friends in Jamaica and Cuba are getting hit by a category 5 hurricane, Monroe County Fire and Rescue is always ready to protect the Keys.
Chief Colina said, “We’re, we’re very blessed in where we’re at for this point in the season, and our emergency manager, and his team, they work in hour by hour, just monitoring all of the impacts, the impacts that will happen down south, and obviously, always viewing what potential impacts will occur here for Monroe County, our residents and visitors. We’re very fortunate so far this hurricane season, and we’ll knock on wood with that one. But our prayers and hopes go out to those that are going to be impacted by this storm, and we’ll be monitoring that for any required needs that we potentially could could assist with.”
Halloween is always a busy time for Monroe County Fire Rescue.
Chief Colina said, “Definitely, a busy week for Monroe County Fire Rescue, making sure we get out there in the community, and list all the events we’ve got going. Tomorrow, from six to eight, we have Sugarloaf’s trunk or treat. It’s always an excellent, excellent time. That’ll be followed up on Thursday. Thursday, we’ll be at Key West, and we’ll be at Marathon high schools for the college fair, which is a great, great opportunity to present everything about fire rescue, about firefighters, emergency responders, EMT, paramedics, flight nurses. It’s just a great time. Followed up by that following Friday, we’ll be at Coral Shores, so we’ll hit the main high schools here in Monroe County, just to to help hopefully inspire new recruits one day. Then Halloween. Halloween is this Friday. We’re actually looking for some favorable weather for Halloween. And between Eden Pines neighborhoods, trunk or treat, Friday from 5:30 to 8, Quarry apartments, trunk or treat, 5:30 to 8, and then, obviously, next Saturday, something very special to us is the Tunnels to Tower 5K at Big Pine Community Park. So we’re jam packed with stuff coming up, followed in November, November 11 will be the Veterans Day Parade in Key West. A great, great time to celebrate our veterans, and Key West does an amazing job of hosting that parade for us.”
Nine new firefighters were recently welcomed to the team.
Chief Colina said, “We’re definitely looking for more locals. We have a class going on currently with 33 students for the minimum standards Fire Academy. Out of those 33, I believe we have 21 locals within that group that hopefully one day we’ll be finding positions here in Monroe County. So we’re very fortunate to have an amazing staff here at Fire Administration that really puts forth a significant effort to get out to these schools, to get out to these events and promote first responders, safety, health, alongside our partners with the sheriff’s office, we love the locals. They know the community. It’s where their their family is at. So anytime we can help promote that, we will be there.”
A pickleball tournament is coming up on December 6.
Cheif Colina said, “It’ll be the first annual Monroe County Fire Rescue is benevolent, it’s called Fire in the Kitchen. We have a pickleball tournament that will be Saturday, December 6, from 9am to 3pm. It will have a woman’s and men’s division. It’ll have mixed doubles, and it’s for all levels, from beginners to intermediate to advanced. So we look forward to having a great, great time out there with the community. Fire in the Kitchen is for our benevolent, which has several organizations countywide that they help support and they donate to with the MCFR benevolent. So the benevolent is, aside from Monroe County Fire Rescue, a separate organization that does other goodwill and helps support things within the community.”
The holidays are right around the corner.
Cheif Colina said, “December 4, from 8:30 to 2 is our annual flight to the North Pole. We’re definitely excited about that at Key West International Airport. Just an amazing time for all the kids, the parents, everybody that participates there, we look forward to that. Just advising all the drivers out there to be very vigilant of where you’re at. Make sure you’re looking at these school busses, these intersections that are wide and open, make sure when you see those lights going on, it’s not a race to beat the bus, just go ahead and give it those 15, 20 seconds to allow time for those children to get on the bus safely, and have that bus operator not have to worry about cars flying around and potentially hitting somebody. So we’re fortunate that we’ve got wonderful residents down here that are very mindful, but a lot of times, visitors forget the rules. We’re always in preparation, even for other areas, to make sure that any of our resources and our skills and ability and experience, if we can help elsewhere, we always try to do that, kind of what we’re prepping now for the storm and the impact of those areas elsewhere, but at the same time, our main focus is always Monroe County. Our members are very proud to serve this community, very proud to have the support we do, from the Board of County Commissioners and our County Administrator, Hurley. So without the support of the public and without our government, it’d be an even tougher job out there to provide the services to the community.”
For more information, click here: https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/firerescue