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.
There was an accident this morning on Stock Island.
Chief Colina said, “We had crews in Stock Island working a structure fire this morning, and then that accident came out. So we’ve got a great partnership with Key West, and Key West came out to help us with the accident while we had crews working on scene for the structure fire. But they were able to contain it just to the one unit. It seemed to start with electrical fire. So we’ve got the fire marshal’s office from Monroe County over there investigating right now to see what the cause and origin was.”
There was a fatality recently on Card Sound Road.
Chief Colina said, “Historically, Card Sound Road is, it’s kind of a dangerous area at times, especially some low light areas. It makes that stretch a little hazardous for the motorist, and also tourist people that aren’t familiar with the roads. Makes it a little bit more challenging than the stretch for us.”
Monroe County Fire Rescue will host the annual Easter egg hunt on March 25 at the Big Coppitt fire station.
Chief Colina said, “That is a great deal for the community. In the last probably five years, it has just grown exponentially. And we love it that we get more and more people that are coming out, bringing the kids, family. We get adults without kids that come out to that and celebrate it. So it’s just a great time to come out and meet some of the firefighters, look at some of the equipment, and then have the Easter egg hunt for the kids with the eggs. We pass out the candy and we always pass out fire safety information for adults and for the children. We hide one special egg and someone always finds it. So we look forward to that.”
When local schools have job fairs, MCFR will participate.
Chief Colina said, “We set up our little area there to talk about Monroe County Fire Rescue opportunities in the fire service careers, different paths within the fire service that you can tackle, and it works really well. That kind of leads into Monroe County Fire Rescue. Now, we normally hold one class, one minimum standards class a year, and we’re going to be holding a second one. This will be the first time we hold two classes, two standards classes, in one year. So that’ll be coming up soon. If you have any inquiries, you can go to our website and click on the link for fire, and it will give you the information for fire school. If we have anybody that’s interested, we’ll be hosting the second Monroe County Fire minimum standards training course. There’s between 40, 45 facilities within the state of Florida. That number kind of changes a little bit. We’re one of the training facilities by the state of Florida’s fire bureau of training and standards, and because of that, we can host the first part of what it takes to become a firefighter, which is called minimum standards. The Interim Standards Program, basically, you come in as a student, you have to pass an entry aptitude test and then a physical agility test, just to make sure that you’re physically prepared for what the course is going to be given you. And you go through that course, it lasts about three and a half months, and it’s a Monday through Friday, everyday grind, but it prepares you to take the state examination and evaluation for your compliance. So we offer that down here at Monroe County, and we’ve partnered with local teaching areas, Florida Keys college as well. They offer the EMT portion. So in the state of Florida, you have to have your fire compliance and your emergency medical technician certificate. And once you have accomplished those two tasks, then you’re actually ready for employment.”
How many firefighters per year are brought on as new recruits?
Chief Colina said, “The last class we had over 100 applicants. We hosted 35 positions. And throughout the course, we actually had 33 that entered. And from those 33 we had 30 that completed. So strong numbers right there. This next class, I think we’re, we’re around 80, about 80 or 90 applicants right now, and realize sometimes we’ll get applicants that apply, and they may change their mind right there at the last minute, but we look to have some strong numbers in a strong class again for our our second offering. The last class I went through, we had several individuals, I would say, already professionals, already had businesses working. But it was a calling. It was something that they felt they wanted to do. So we were extremely proud to see some of our graduates from the class that just ended, these were people that wanted a change in their life. They wanted a different career path. They wanted to enter into the service, in terms of being a servant of the community. And they did exceptionally well. So it is quite a commitment to make, but the rewards are endless. I will tell you that after 30 years.”
With the dry season, it’s important to be diligent against fires.
Chief Colina said, “We’ve had this abnormally cold weather for us down here, which means that the cold weather for us keeps that humidity down. So dry conditions with a low humidity, that’s the recipe for these brush fires. So just make sure that you do your due diligence around your own houses. If you have any type of brush, if you have any type of clearing, make sure you clear at least 10 feet away from your house, that you have nothing that’s impinging on your house. And the main thing is just be safe. If you have those fire pits, make sure that after you’re done with them, you extinguish them completely. Don’t let them just burn out. A lot of them have cages. You can put the cages on top of them to keep embers and things from blowing because, along with this low humidity and cold weather, we have strong winds, and those embers can travel miles, and then actually start a fire somewhere else in a dry condition. So just be vigilant of your own house, your own area, and just keep listening for weather reports.”
There was a vagrant living in the Sugar Loaf station recently.
Chief Colina said, “A little confusion with that going on. That station is Monroe County Fire Rescue station 10. It’s located in Sugar Loaf. It has been vacated since July. We’re getting ready for the demolition of that station, and they’re going to be building a new station on that same footprint. So in the midst of it, we had that first cold snap that came through, and we found ourselves with an individual that was trying to stay out of the cold, I guess, and he found one of our vacant stations and was staying there for about a week. It was one of our command staff that noticed the lights were still on and we had turned them off and when they went by there, they identified that there was a subject staying in there. We contacted our partners at the sheriff’s office, and they gave him an escort out of the building for us. I’m extremely proud to be fire chief of Monroe County and lead these extremely committed men and women of the service. We live in the most beautiful place in the world, and I am just proud to be able to protect that in the ways that we can.”
For more information, click here: https://www.monroecounty-fl.gov/firerescue