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Fire chief urges county to staff rescue unit, warns short-term-rental inspections are an unfunded state mandate
Summary
Chief Grimes told the Bellarmine City Council the department must ramp up short-term rental inspections required by state law and urged council support in pressing the county to fund a staffed rescue unit for local coverage.
Chief Grimes of Pinellas Suncoast Fire & Rescue told the Bellarmine City Council that the department is carrying heavy operational demands and a new state requirement is stretching resources. "We're required by the state now to inspect every short term rental. So that's a huge, unfunded mandate for us," Grimes said, noting the district must examine roughly 1,800 short-term rentals and that inspection work and re-inspections are time-consuming.
Grimes reported 17 calls for the month in Bellair Beach (seven fire calls, 10 EMS) and highlighted staffing shortages: the state produces far fewer firefighters and paramedics than the system needs, he said. He described capital improvements intended to close coverage gaps—buying a property in North Indian Rocks Beach to add coverage by Oct. 1 and opening Station 28 on the mainland in January—and asked the council to press the Pinellas County Commission to staff a rescue unit the district needs for barrier-island response.
