FLORIDA RIGS

[srq2009]

[quote name='FIREPIX21' timestamp='1304980442' post='438972']

Alex,



Does Hillsborough County have an automatic aid agreement between all the departments?

[/quote]



No, they do not. If an incident happens along a border or the location is unclear, then more than one department will respond - some areas of the county have convergence of multiple departments - the University of South Florida area being one. Tampa covers the USF campus proper, but along each side of its rectangular campus are different jurisdictions (Hillsborough County and Temple Terrace). They are constantly criss-crossing each other.



In most cases, the departments work together and try to respond with closer resources if they have them available. From what I've learned, Hillsborough County Fire is the 'ultimate fire protection' for the county, so if one of the cities requests their help, they cannot say no. Accordingly, the county runs specialized calls for Temple Terrace and Plant City, and occasionally runs in the city on highly hazardous situations or technical rescues. I've heard of two instances of that happening, one of each type. Temple Terrace often calls the City of Tampa before calling the County, from what I know...especially for fire incidents along 56th Street and Bullard Pkwy, because Tampa Station 13 is just across the municipal boundary and runs an engine, rescue, truck, and chief.



This is a topic that I find most interesting. It is overall, a minor issue in Hillsborough County. In the whole county, there are only 4 agencies to coordinate. On the other hand, Pinellas County has developed over time with a slew of hodge-podge departments, both career and volunteer, and so now has some 20 fire/rescue agencies (all career, municipal and non) in a county of a million or so. They solved this issue long ago by uniting the county under one dispatch and numbering system (from #1 to #70), standardizing unit types, and hiring Sunstar Paramedic services to be the ultimate EMS provider in the county. Many of the local departments have their own nuances and ALS/BLS statuses are mixed on different department trucks, but the system seems to work fairly well. I have noticed though, that the resources sent to routine incidents are greater than in Hillsborough County. A standard traffic crash (with reported injuries) gets two ALS fire/rescue response units (two of any engine, rescue, truck, squad, depending on what part of the county), and a sunstar ALS ambulance. In Hillsborough County, that is usually cut to an ALS engine or ladder and a BLS ambulance, or an ALS engine or ladder and an ALS rescue. In Tampa, they often send only an ALS engine to check on traffic accidents, with the potential to request a BLS ambulance or ALS rescue.



I've gone on too long - hope I answered your question <img src='http://www.firepics.net/groupboards/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />