BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — A thorough report presented to the county commission Nov. 1 details the hard work the men and women of Bradford County Fire Rescue during the 2020-21 fiscal year.
Director Allen Parrish delivered the report to the board along with his monthly financial report, which was praised as an example for other departments to follow.
The EMS service responded to 8,702 calls this past year. Patients were transported 75% of the time, with non-transports resulting from refusing treatment, no treatment necessary, the patient leaving the scene, etc.
Nearly 26% of calls were responses to illness, and another 23% involved transfers between facilities or palliative care. Another 8% of patients were experiencing breathing problems, 6.4% had fallen, and 6% were experiencing chest pain. The remaining 30% called for a variety of other reasons.
The busiest months in 20-21 included August 2021, with 892 responses; July 2021, with 799 responses; and May 2021, with 758 responses. These averaged to 29 to 26 and 24 calls per day, and 24 calls per day was the annual average.
The top three destinations were of course North Florida Regional Medical Center (38%), UF Shands Hospital (26%) and Starke ER (19%).
Firefighters were called out a total of 1,847 times. Most calls, 1,363, were medical response calls. Vehicle crashes resulted in 184 calls, with a total of 15 requiring driver or passenger extractions. (Note: Fire and EMS personnel responded to 322 vehicle accidents combined.) There were 84 calls for general assistance and 77 fire alarm responses. There were 38 building fires, three commercial fires, two industrial fires, 26 brush fires, 17 vehicle fires and two heavy equipment fires. They also responded to 5 illegal burns, 10 Hazmat calls and 32 listed as other fire calls.
The busiest months were July 2021 (194 calls), August 2021 (193 calls) and May 2021 (169 calls). Each of those months had a higher-than-normal number than medical response calls. November 2020 had the highest number of building fires (eight), while December 2020 had the highest number of brush fires (seven). January and March 2021 tied for the highest number of vehicle crash responses (21 each).
How do they manage it? Well, Bradford County Fire Rescue has five fully staffed full-time advanced live support ambulances and three fully staffed two-firefighter engine companies. They operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for a total of 6,570 24-hour duty shifts annually. They also employ an administrative assistant who processes more than $3 million in billing revenue and manages 8,000 patient care records every year.
These personnel are stationed in six facilities, including the billing and records office in the courthouse; the EMS headquarters behind the courthouse, which is Station 60; the courthouse annex, which is the headquarters for fire; Station 50 in Lawtey; Station 20 in Theressa and Station 90 in Sampson City. The administrative assistant works in the courthouse, while the Fire Division chief, shift lieutenant and fire marshal are in the annex. Station 60 houses two ambulances and fire rescue’s administrative headquarters. Stations 50, 20 and 90 each have one ambulance and one firefighting company.
Station 10, a seventh facility, is the unstaffed station in Speedville, which houses the tax collector’s satellite office and serves to store specialty response vehicles and equipment.
Bradford County Fire Rescue employs 62 full-time personnel and nine part-timers, although the number of part-time employees varies throughout the year. As of the publication of the report, there were 23 women and 48 men on staff. Nineteen are EMT/firefighters, 12 are paramedics/firefighters, 30 are paramedics and 11 are EMTs. Firefighters are dual certified to assist in responding to medical calls.
Most employees, 51, have been with the county for less than two years; 14 have worked two to five years; six have worked five to seven years; one has worked seven to 10 years; and eight have worked for more than 10 years. Most (28) reside in Alachua County, followed by Bradford County (19) and Union County (7). The service also has employees from Clay, Gilchrist, Marion, Putnam, Lake, Flagler and Volusia counties.
EMS billed more than $5.5 million in services for 20-21, and collected 59% of that amount, or $3.2 million. The service collected more than anticipated for both interfacility transfers and ambulance services.
Bradford Fire Rescue spent nearly $6.29 million with 81% of the total going toward salaries and benefits and the remining amount covering operating costs. The county’s costs minus the revenue generated was $3.06 million. (Note: An additional $430,000 in revenue billed in September was not received at the time of the report. Also, absent another form of revenue, the county used federal pandemic aid to cover public safety costs.)
A combination of grants and CARES Act funding provided equipment upgrades including the remounting of an ambulance and purchase of a new ambulance; a new pickup for quick responses (75% funded); two AeroClave decontaminating devices; three cardiac defibrillators/monitors (75% funded); and the remodeling of the portable building at Station 90 in Sampson City.
Public education and relations services include quarterly CPR courses for the public; attendance at the fair, festivals, airport and FIRM events; Vial of Life presentations; presence at Pop Warner, BHS athletics and Rotary Club events; and various social media education and awareness campaigns.
Bradford Fire Rescue even tracks public confidence, comparing a handful of complaints (4) to more than 30 letters, phone calls and social media accolades for the year.
Goals for 2021-22 include increasing the medical service collection rate by 10% by evaluating the fee schedule and renegotiating with the billing contractor and Starke ER for transport services. They also want to reduce training costs by conducting more on-duty training and collaborating with Clay County and various hospitals. They want to reduce par (minimum) levels of medical supplies by 3% by developing an inventory control system and conducting quarterly price comparisons.
Another major goal is reducing response times to less than eight minutes for 80% of all EMS responses by placing advanced lifesaving service providers on each fire engine and having all EMS daily supervisors respond to all high acuity calls. They will also seek state funding to continue unique, specialized or critical advanced airway training.
They will also be looking to federal and matching grants to replace aging equipment with newer and more efficient vehicles, including a new fire engine, squad truck, ambulance (replace or remount) and retrofitting for a stretcher loading/locking system.
Other facts include:
—the average daily travel of 1,500 miles per day, or 547,500 miles per year.
—paramedics and EMTs spend an average of 66 minutes with patients.
—the starting pay is $11 an hour for a firefighter ($36,608 a year) and $12 an hour for a paramedic ($39,936 a year).
