One Florida fire department’s approach to operations following major storms

By Constance York
Photos by author
“Francis, Jeanne, Irma, Dorian…” Captain Rob Pedreira rattles off the names.
These aren’t victims or rescues. These are just some of the hurricanes Pedreira has lived and worked through in his 26 years on the job for St. Lucie County (FL) Fire District. According to Florida Gulf Coast University, a major hurricane makes landfall in Florida about every four years on average, and hurricane season lasts from June through November.
Pedreira is captain for the North Hutchinson Island Fire Station Engine 9, a part of St Lucie County Fire in the Treasure Coast area on the east coast of Florida. The island is 147 miles north of Miami and 130 miles south of Daytona Beach.
“Francis and Jeanne actually made landfall on the Treasure Coast. Those were the ones that were back to back, like two weeks apart,” said Pedreira.
When the area gets to hurricane warning status, meaning a hurricane is 24 hours out, they call in double crews and they double up their food and supplies for their station. Firefighters also install hurricane shutters.
“Once wind speeds start to get up and the weather really starts to deteriorate, we’ll evacuate this station and get moved to the mainland,” he said. “Usually this station goes to Station 4, which is the airport station—reason being, we do have a drawbridge, flooding, debris, wind, we go over to a more secure area, and then once the storm passes and the winds start to subside we go back to operating.”
He said that 55 miles an hour is an average, but the decision up to the chiefs in charge.
“Once the wind speeds come down after that, we’ll go out and start our search and rescue, zone triage, damage assessment to buildings, etc.,” said Pedreira. “We kind of use that as a threshold, when we start getting sustained gusts it can start to blow the trucks all over the roads, especially the smaller units, also, obviously, it becomes unsafe for personnel, or anyone to be out.”
Although they have guidelines to follow, every storm is different.
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“The chiefs usually give a little lee-way to the officers in charge of what they’re seeing out in the field of what needs to get done,” said Pedreira. “We will get flooded in certain parts, and sand from the dunes has blown across the road and into the high-rises.”
Once winds die down to a safe level, they send out brush trucks to survey the area. They are four-wheel-drive units that are usually used for brush fires out in the woods and have a better capability to get through damaged areas. The engines will go out after they hear the roads are clear.
“Basically, we start at one end of the zone, and go all the way and we check every building, doing damage assessment to see if we see any obvious damage to the building. Unfortunately, we get a lot of fire alarms, the weather will set them off and we have to go around condo to condo, re-setting and checkingand making sure there’s nothing wrong.”
Being a barrier island, evacuation orders will go into effect for the island, but not all residents choose to leave. These are usually native Floridians, Pedreira said, and know that the fire department will not be responding until after the storm dies down enough for them to safely do so.
Pedreira also commented on the apparatus and equipment available for firefighters to search and perform rescues in the wake of a hurricane. “Engine 9, Rescue 9 and Beach Rescue 9 are the main rigs at Engine 9. The Coast Guard, and Sheriff’s department has a boat. The fire district has a boat,” he said. “Engine 9 also has a small boat as well, but it’s for searching, or responding to flooded areas, not for rivers, or offshore rescue.”
Many of the firefighters are also trained and work as lifeguards on their off-days.
While operating before, during and after a hurricane, Pedriera said they work off standard operating guidelines (SOGs) rather than standard operating procedures (SOPs).
“Ours are SOGs, because they’re guidelines, we allow the company officer to alter it or make decisions based upon the situation and their experience,” he said. “But it does outline exactly how we will operate from when the hurricane goes from a watch to warning, to how we will staff our stations and apparatus, when we will evacuate and go to other stations…It’s a whole SOG, and during that time we follow it, because the chances of life safety coming up greatly increase.”
In the event of a severe storm, firefighters search the island in grids looking for victims and using a structural marking system to identify buildings that have been searched or are structurally damaged. The agency has hurricane bins with supplies and household items, and a board that outlines how to mark structures that they keep stocked and ready to just grab and go.
“Like most fire departments, we’re a paramilitary type organization,” he said. “It starts at the top with the fire chiefs and goes all the way down and everyone has orders to follow.”
Aside from fire alarms, the department also must deal with a lot of downed wires, arcing wires, and medical calls, especially people with conditions that are exacerbated by the lack of power.
“For us, it’s a double whammy, we’re here to protect you guys, but we also have families and when we lose communication, like with Francis and Jeanne and cell towers were out, and people couldn’t find out about their kids, wives, and husbands,” Pedreira said. Inevitably, firefighters turn to and rely on each other, checking on each other’s family and report back.
“It flows pretty well,” he said. “As chaotic as those storms can be, we’ve gotten very good at it.” Pedreira cautioned, however, that this is no cause for complacency. “The day you don’t get nervous in this job is the day you need to leave.”
Constance York is a multimedia journalist from Metro Detroit. She has been documenting the Detroit (MI) Fire Department since around 2002. Check out her Facebook page Detroit on Fire and her YouTube channel.