On March 30, 31 and June 29, all personnel from the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District attending a workshop presented by the Florida Autism Society. The instructor for this class was Teresa Becerra and she provided 2 sessions each day in training our personnel on how to deal and treat autistic patients. Teresa brought her 20 year old son, Robert who is autistic.

On Thursday, July 20, 2017, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District presented numerous awards to its personnel during at the beginning of their Commission meeting.

The following personnel received the following awards:

On Thursday, July 20, 2017, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District swears in two new Firefighter/EMT’s at the beginning of their monthly Commission meeting. Month’s back the District had some retirements and began the employment process utilizing candidates obtained through the National Testing Network (NTN).

On Thursday, May 18, 2017, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District responded to 1401 44th Avenue East at 1200 hours for a report of a structure fire. Upon leaving the Station Battalion 3 advised ECC that he had a large column of thick black smoke and requested a 2nd alarm to dispatch.
Engine 321 arrived 3 minutes later at 1203 hours and reported a fully involved building with fire spreading to a large pile of tires.

On Thursday, June 1, 2017, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District Hazardous Materials Team responded to the North River Fire District for a fuel spill in a boat. Accidentally a boat owner pumped over 20 gallons of fuel through a rod holder instead of his fuel tank. This fuel ended up in bottom of this boat in the well and rapidly became an extremely dangerous incident.

On 4/18, 19 & 20 Southern Manatee Fire Rescue presented certificates of appreciation to EVO gymnastics and several of the gymnast in recognition of their demonstration of acrobatics they practice on a routine basis. This demonstration gives valuable insight to first responders who may be called upon to render care in the event of an injury.

On Wednesday, April 12, 2017 from 0900 to 1600 hours, the District conducted our annual Strategic Planning Workshop with all of their officers and staff personnel. Each year prior to the starting on the next fiscal year’s budget, all personnel submit their budget request for either new equipment, maintenance & repair of existing equipment, supplies and continuation requests.

At this meeting all of these requests are reviewed and any new equipment or ideas are discussed and voted on to determine if they will be included in the next year’s budget.

On Thursday, March 30, 2017 at the Manatee County Fire Chief’s Association meeting issued the “Chief’s Unit Citation Award” to members of the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District Hazardous Materials Team for their professionalism and Team work during a multi-agency response to an overturned gasoline tanker accident on I-75 just north of University Parkway on December 12, 2016.

On Sunday, October 16th, 2016, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District participated in Morton’s Market 17th Annual Chili Cook-off that raises money for the Sarasota Fire Fighters Benevolent Fund.

On Saturday, October 1, 2016 from 10:00 to 2:00, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District held their 2nd Annual Open House to kick off the Start of Fire Prevention Week.

Recently Southern Manatee purchased a U.A.S. (Unmanned Aerial System or Drone) for it’s HazMat team. This system allows us to gather real time information from long distances without having to put firefighters in harms way.

Southern Manatee Fire Rescue Hazardous Materials Team and Sarasota County Fire Departments Hazardous Materials team practice how to quickly and effectively extinguish large flammable liquid fires using SMFR’s Foam trailer.

Last month Southern Manatee Fire Rescues Hazardous Materials Response Team was the recipient of a large cache of equipment from the National Guard’s 48th Civil Support team. The 48th CST is one of two teams in Florida that the military calls upon for incidents involving weapons of mass destruction such as Chemical, Biological, Radiation, Nuclear and Etiological agents.

On May 31st, 2016 around noon, Station 4-B Shift, Truck 343 and Medic 7 were dispatched to a report of an unknown type of medical emergency, person collapsed. Apparently the patient was behind his house mowing his lawn and tripped over some garden stones. When this happened a neighbor saw the patient collapsed and did not get up right away so they called 9-1-1. When our personnel arrived on scene…

On Thursday, July 21st, 2016 at the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District monthly Fire Commissioner Meeting, the Fire Commissioners recognized FF/EMT Seth Burnett, FF/EMT Steve Gibson, FF/EMT Brian Hodges, Paramedic Keith Lock and Paramedic Kevin Mackin with the Phoenix Award for successfully resuscitating a patient that suffered a sudden cardiac arrest while playing golf