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Fort Lauderdale fire rescue warns boat-response gaps as marine calls tie up units for hours
Summary
City marine teams and fire-rescue officials told the Marine Advisory Board that dive and boat rescue calls routinely take area fire units out of service for more than an hour, highlighting staffing gaps and prompting exploration of funding for a second fireboat and other measures to reduce coverage gaps.
Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue officials told the Marine Advisory Board that recent marine search-and-rescue calls can keep fireboats and associated engine companies tied up for well over an hour, creating temporary coverage gaps across the city.
Chief Eric Knowles, marine team coordinator and battalion chief, said the department’s average dive-call duration for the responding engine, ladder and rescue companies is “an hour and 24 minutes and 12 seconds,” with a 90th-percentile call time of about 2 hours and 19 minutes. “We get 1 hour of search time,” Knowles said, describing the department’s operational standard for on-scene diving searches.
The figures…
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