Firefighter James Haag has been se-
lected as our 2012 Firefighter of the
Year. James Haag has been a Fire-
fighter with the City of Boca Raton for
eight years. In his short time with the
Department, he has accomplished the
following:
came a State Certified Hazardous Mate-
rials Technician and has become an
intricate part of our Hazardous Materi-
als Team. He took this to the next level
as an instructor and has helped teach
several classes training other Hazardous
Materials Technicians.
the country at his own expense, taking
home multiple awards. In October, his
team placed 1st at the Flagler County
EMS Competition. In June, they took
2nd place at the Randy Boaz Competition
in Miami, and in November, his team
took 3rd place at the Temple Terrace
Competition.
running of Boca Raton Fire Rescue’s
own annual ALS competition, which is
going on its 7th year.
James has also participated on the De-
partment’s Combat Challenge Team.
In 2011, James took over the responsi-
bility of running the Department’s an-
nual Sweet Heart Ball at Banyan Place.
This is a community outreach program
held once a year for the senior citizens
near the Valentine’s Day holiday.
Following the 2010 Boca Helping
Hands structure fire, James was recog-
nized by the Florida State Fire Marshal
for finding and preserving blood stains
on window blinds, which ended up be-
ing a key piece of evidence needed to
solve the arson case.
Palm Beach County EMS Providers
Association as the “Paramedic of the
Year” for all of Palm Beach County.
The basis of that award was his actions
at an especially challenging vehicle
crash on I-95 with occupants trapped
and extrication needed.
Firefighter of the Year. James was rec-
ognized for his achievements by the Fire
Rescue Services Department on Friday,
March 1, 2013 at 9:00AM in the 6500
Building Auditorium and will be recog-
nized by the 100 Club of South Palm
Beach County at their Annual Awards
Ceremony on Wednesday, March 20,
2013 at 7:00PM at the Royal Palm
Yacht & Country Club.
A publication by the staff of the City of Boca Raton Fire-Rescue Services Department
March-April 2013 BOCA FIRE RESCUE NET
http://www.ci.boca-raton.fl.us/fire/newsletters.shtm
Retirement,
ary 27, 2013 after serving the City for
34 years. A “Last Roll Call Ceremony”
was held on March 1, 2013 recognizing
Captain Diaz, as well as retired Captain
Scott Johnston, retired Captain Joe
Hauck and retired Captain Dan Coine.
Mike Francis was promoted to Captain
on March 6, 2013. Dan Rush was pro-
moted to Fire Prevention Officer on
March 4, 2013.
from South Florida State College, Avon
Park, on December 17, 2012. Captain
Pat Rea earned his Bachelor degree in
Public Safety Management from Palm
Beach State College on December 19,
2012. Firefighter Octavio Quinones
Safety Management on December 19,
2012. Congratulations to all!
Friday March 1, 2013 at 9:00AM in the
6500 Building Auditorium. Congratula-
Rescue was dispatched to a medical
emergency at the Town Center Mall,
6000 West Glades Road. When our
crews arrived, Mall Security notified us
that a person was choking in the Food
Court; and prior to our arrival, John
Holgerson had performed the
“Heimlich Maneuver,” which relieved
respiratory and potentially life threaten-
ing condition. We are thankful for his
actions. Mr. Holgerson was awarded
our “Citizen Courage Award,” which is
inscribed with the following C.S. Lewis
quote: “Courage is not simply one of
the virtues, but the form of every virtue
at the testing point.”
Our “B Team,” comprised of Firefight-
ers Robert Parks, Evan Gaub and
Octavio Quinones, took 1st Place at the
Fire Rescue East ALS (Advanced Life
Support) Competition in Daytona
The final scenario was a water park
disaster involving seven patients. Upon
arrival they found a pediatric drowning
patient; a patient from a lightning strike
that was deceased; an allergic reaction
patient, secondary to application of sun
screen; a patient with a tibia & fibula
fracture; a head injury patient; a preg-
nant patient with nausea; and, lastly, a
tension pnuemothorax patient. The
minutes to triage and treat all seven
patients. The three team members were
given Department Excellence Awards,
Lombardi quote:
proportion to their commitment to excel-
lence, regardless of their chosen field of
endeavor."
We received a very nice letter of appre-
ciation from Karen Krumholtz, Execu-
tive Director of the Spirit of Giving Net-
work, Inc. In the letter, she applauds
Assistant Chief Raul Travieso’s efforts
in coordinating the Holiday Gift Drive
for 2012 at Boca Raton Fire Rescue.
Mrs. Krumholtz wrote, “What a fantas-
tic partner you were this year. This
community initiative could not happen
without you.” Truer words may never
have been spoken, as Chief Travieso
jumped in on a moment’s notice when
the program was floundering and took
command of the situation. His leader-
ship in this matter is well appreciated.
For his efforts, Chief Travieso was
awarded our Department Excellence
a person's life is in direct proportion to
their commitment to excellence, regard-
less of their chosen field of endeavor.”
Excellence Awards
Sumner and Firefighter Shelly Griffith
were assigned to a medical call at the
San Remo Condominium, 2871 N
Ocean Blvd. (2013-1138). Upon arrival,
they found a security guard with a fe-
BOCA FIRE RESCUE Page 2
male that had been on the floor of her
apartment for what appeared to have
been the past few hours. The patient
and the apartment were a mess. They
took the time to clean the patient and
then proceeded to clean up as much of
the apartment as possible. They spent
over an hour tending to this patient’s
needs. We talk about customer service,
but this went way beyond that. Captain
Lenny Marraffino suggested that both
of these employees are deserving of
recognition for their efforts on this call,
going well above and beyond what any-
one else would have done. For their
efforts, they were awarded our Depart-
ment Excellence Award, which is in-
scribed with the Vince Lombardi quote:
“The quality of a person's life is in di-
rect proportion to their commitment to
excellence, regardless of their chosen
field of endeavor.”
following: “Firefighter/Driver Kevin
computer-aided drawing skills. He has
also taken extra steps in going to these
buildings on his spare time to ensure
what he is drawing is correct. He has
worked with Captain Joe Brooks on the
Town Center Mall project, which was a
monumental feat in itself. Besides all
that he does for these projects, Kevin is
indispensible around the station. He has
probably saved the City hundreds, if not
thousands, of dollars. Kevin is a skilled
mechanic, so when things break or
aren’t working properly, he takes the
time to investigate the problem and,
many times, he fixes the problem with-
out burdening the already-busy Depart-
tween converting a ventricular tachycar-
dia patient with medication versus
cardio-version. It can also help with a
patient that may experience adverse
reactions to a medication. (The medica-
tion can be stopped immediately, then
switch the pump over to primary, dis-
connect tubing from patient, flush line,
reconnect, and infuse normal saline.)
This can also work for a patient that
may experience a drop in blood pres-
sure, too; the medication can be stopped
temporarily and fluids can be infused
much quicker. Nicholas is deserving of
recognition and appreciation for this
work. The Innovation Award is an
acrylic paperweight etched with the De-
partment logo and the US Marine Corp
motto: “Improvise, Adapt, Overcome.”
Kit Howes, retired District Chief with
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue and
formerly with the Del-Trail Fire Control
District 9 (west of Boca Raton and
Delray Beach), published Hot Zone, a
book about his fire service career.
Many of our retired employees will en-
joy the stories in the book as much as I
did, as some of them also worked part-
time for Quality Ambulance Service,
which served as the only ambulance
transport service for the City, as well as
the unincorporated areas and Highland
Beach, back in the 1970s. Learn more
about the book and obtain an auto-
graphed copy at www.kithowes.com.
ment mechanics with what is a simple
repair or adjustment. He always checks
with me before attempting any work or
repair. Recently, since the Jon boats
have been placed at Fire Station 3,
Kevin took the time to rebuild the lower
units, replace the water pumps, and do
regular mechanical maintenance to keep
the old outboard motors running. The
motors were recently sent to a profes-
sional shop for some maintenance is-
sues. We took the Jon boats out for
some training on January 28th and found
a couple of problems that the profes-
sional shop missed. Kevin and I fixed
the issues and the outboard motors are
now running properly. For all the little
fixes and adjustments he does around
here and his extra hours of work for the
Building Survey Program, I feel Kevin
deserves a special recognition. I know
of very few other employees in the De-
partment that take the time, or have the
knowledge and ability, to troubleshoot a
problem and possibly fix it, rather than
just write a work order.”
For Kevin’s efforts, he was awarded our
Department Excellence Award, which
quote: “The quality of a person's life is
in direct proportion to their commit-
ment to excellence, regardless of their
chosen field of endeavor.”
24, 2013, for us to consider the benefits
of the Hospira Secondary IV Set; and
he provided subsequent follow-up,
these for our apparatus. Using this
equipment may be the difference be-
WELCOME TO THE WORLD!
the budget process for the next fiscal
year. As you might expect, funds are
tight and funding for new projects will
be subjected to much scrutiny by the
Fire Chief and City management. Any
suggestions for new equipment or new
projects should include the following:
A justification for the equipment or
project that explains how these solu-
tions would improve the ability of Boca
Raton Fire Rescue to provide emer-
gency services to the community or
ment;
or service;
turer or local distributors.
tem. This information will be reviewed
by the Fire Chief and his staff to deter-
mine whether it is included in the
2013/14 budget.
Jan Feb Total EMS Incidents 1,079 960
Average Resp. Time (min) 5.46 5.49
EMS Unit (most alarms) M5-251 M5–235
Total Fire Alarms 152 126
Average Resp. Time (min) 6.49 6.40 Fire Co. (most alarms) E3-185 TRK1-171
Station 5 (most alarms) 523 503
Other 304 273
I would be remiss if I did not take this
opportunity to especially thank and
commend our staff and our volunteers
for their dedication and cooperative
assistance, making this year’s FIRE
EXPO one of the most successful in the
City’s history. Each of you went
“above and beyond” the call to duty in
terms of preparing and participating in
FIRE EXPO 2013 at FAU.
Over 1,500 visitors of all ages attended
Department will be conducting CPAT
orientation, practice, and timed testing
during the month of March. For further
information or to register for the CPAT,
please contact Victoria Osborn at 561-
982-4010.
honor of pinning on his son, Brian’s,
firefighter badge. Brian was hired by
Coral Springs Fire Rescue Department,
and the Badge Presentation Ceremony
was held at the Coral Springs Fire Res-
cue Training Academy on January 18th,
2013.
the Expo and were thrilled to see 10 action
-filled exhibits and over 20 “health and
safety” exhibitors, including representa-
Department, 911 Communication Center,
Checkpoint, Recreational Services, Utility
lice Explorers participated this year, along
with the folks from CERT, Crime Watch,
and the Firefighters Benevolent. Boca
Raton Regional Hospital presented with
the “Wellness Van” and provided staff to
administer cholesterol and blood pressure
checks.
hosting our FIRE EXPO. This partnership
has proven to be a long and rewarding
relationship. And last, but not least, a spe-
cial thanks to Jay Bell, who volunteered
his time to take some awesome pictures.
Varone Seminars
Varone’s spirited and contemporary semi-
nar at the 6500 Building Auditorium on
March 7th and 8th. The class included dis-
cussions on civil liability, negligence, duty
to act, and immunity protection. The latest
fire service cases were discussed, as were
the important lessons learned; the program
looked at the risks and provided practical,
easy-to-understand concepts that fire offi-
cers can apply in their daily lives.
Topics also included the latest social me-
dia and digital imagery cases affecting the
fire service and the lessons learned for fire
departments and firefighters.
tion process for Firefighter/Paramedics in
April of 2013. As such, all applicants are
required to submit a Candidate Physical
Ability Test (CPAT) certificate dated
within one (1) year of the submission of
their online application and written back-
ground packet.
requirement for our hiring process, the
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Fire &
comes new Fire Prevention Officer
(FPO) Dan Rush to the division. Dan is
assigned to the Inspections portion of
the division, reporting to Senior Fire
Inspector Welhaf. His next few months
will be focusing on learning the stat-
utes, Florida Administrative Code and
the Florida Fire Prevention Code. At
the same time, congratulations to Mi-
chael Francis, “Captain” who has re-
turned to the Operations Division on C
shift. Mike, we wish you the best in
your new position.
expansion. A 16,000 s/f addition to the
existing structure brought the building
size to almost 36,000 s/f. The new oc-
cupant load (capacity) for the building is
now calculated at 945 persons. The
building is a Type III B construction,
approximately 37 ft in height with light
weight roof trusses. Parts of the attic
space have sprinklers located within the
area. The egress corridors are rated and
there is vertical separation within por-
tions of the building. The building is
equipped with a complete automatic
sprinkler system and a fire alarm sys-
tem. Some amenities include a 2000 s/f
wellness center, nail and hair salons,
barber shop, café, pro shop and a kids’
center.
west area of the building, has received a
limited use certificate. Residents of
Broken Sound are using that area daily.
The remainder of the building continues
to be under construction. We are work-
ing diligently with the contractor to keep
the residents safe and to keep the project
moving along.
construction is located at 400 NW 2nd
Ave. The plans include a 1,500 s/f book-
store and 10,000 s/f of meeting rooms.
The design allows some meeting rooms
to be accessed directly from the outside
without having to enter into the library
portion of the building. This provides
opportunities to have meetings that may
run past the library closing. The design
has the latest required life safety re-
quirements and is fully-sprinklered with
a fire alarm system. Kauffman and
Lynn is the contractor responsible for
the project and it is moving along at a
feverish pace. A number of the rough
inspections have been completed on
this building thus far, and we are anx-
iously anticipating its completion.
Division!
switching from the current pneumatic
attachment to a magnetic attachment
system. The work will be done in the
following order: Fire Station 8,
3,1,2,5,7,6,4. The work should be com-
pleted by March 15, 2013. The next
project to complete is the selection of a
manufacturer for our replacement Brush
Truck. The specifications have been
submitted to the Purchasing division for
their review and placement into the
RFP documents. Once this has been
completed, vendors will have the op-
portunity to submit proposals to meet
our specific needs. We will review the
proposals and choose the apparatus that
best meets our needs.
delivering our first large supply of uni-
forms by the second week in March.
This new process of ordering will allow
BOCA FIRE RESCUE Page 8
the Logistics and Support Division to
have an in-house inventory so that your
requests for uniforms can be filled in
just a few short days. I know that it has
been a long process, but the end result
will be better service provided to you.
Jumpsuits are in a field trial and are
being worn by Captain Hunsinger’s
crew at Station 2. This evaluation pe-
riod will be done over the next 6
months, and then we will have to deter-
mine if we will move forward with this
uniform change.
Apparatus:
Unit should be delivered within the
next 4 months.
derway.
purchased for Station 2.
completed and mitigation efforts are
being discussed.
completed. Thanks for all your efforts
to complete this task.
this month.
suggestions for improvements to our
equipment, stations, or uniforms; and
stop in my office anytime that you are
at Fire Administration.
always!!!
Sunday, March 17Sunday, March 17Sunday, March 17
BIRTHDAYS!
communicator Week. The intention is
to recognize 911 Dispatchers, and an-
cillary staff, for the sizeable contribu-
tion they make to public safety.
The 911 Dispatch Center is the lifeline
which our citizens, police officers, and
fire and medical response personnel
depend upon for support during critical
situations. We encourage everyone to
appreciate the 9-1-1 call takers, dis-
patchers, and technicians that maintain
radio and phone systems, Communica-
tions Center personnel, and other public
safety telecommunications staff who
to help during emergencies.
patchers will be presented at the City
Council Workshop on April 8th, 2013.
Till next time, from everyone in the 911
Communications Center, be safe.
Passover is March 26
EMS
By:
ALS Competition Teams. Team A (Jeff
Lazzeri, Shea Miller, and James Haag)
and Team B (Robert Parks, Evan Gaub,
and Octavio Quinones) have recently
competed in the Fire Rescue East and
Margate Fire Rescue competitions.
cue East competition held in Daytona
Beach. Team A placed first in the sce-
nario competition, and Team B placed
first in the skills competition at Margate
Fire Rescue’s first competition.
Nationwide Drug Shortages
nation experiencing medication short-
experiencing shortages. The FDA and
one of our EMS vendors publishes a
shortage listing on a weekly basis, and
about 180 medications that are being
used by EMS are on the shortage list-
ing. The EMS vendor list also provides
a substitution medication suggestion;
available substitute. Not only does the
shortage affect EMS but also many
cancer-fighting medications.
states in the nation have done to allevi-
ate the immediate issue of no available
medications. In Florida, we have a
mandatory list of medications we are
required to carry in order to operate as
an ALS licensed provider. The Catch
22 is an agency must carry the specified
medications, but they are unable to ob-
tain those medications due to the na-
tionwide shortages. Each agency must
have their medical director develop a
substitution list of medications when
their regular medications are not avail-
able. However, when the regular medi-
cations are not available, the substitution
medications for the same class of medi-
cations are also not available a majority
of the time. The State of Utah is al-
lowed to use a medication six months
after the labeled expiration date, but in
Florida it is against the law. To change
the law is about a two-year process. This
and other measures are being heavily
suggested to the State officials. From
what I have heard in various meetings,
this shortage is going to continue for
another five years and we have not seen
the worst. So far, we have not run out of
any medications. However, we have
had to deal with medications that need
to be diluted and medications of differ-
ent strengths.
sored a free two-hour lecture by a Lt.
Paramedic from the State of Washington
in January. This was one of the best
lectures I have ever attended. ETCO2 is
a monitoring method used to detect
proper ventilation and oxygenation for a
patient. Most agencies have only used
this in a cardiac arrest patient to confirm
airway status. However, it was ex-
plained that there are many advanced
features that are available when treating
our patients in the field. The old stan-
dard in measuring the oxygenation on
the patient was the Pulse Oximetry,
(SpO2) and this measurement has a de-
layed reading in early detection of an
issue. ETCO2 measurement is almost
instantaneous in providing an early de-
tection of oxygenation. We are pres-
ently reviewing the capability of ETCO2
and will be expanding our use in the
field.
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Thomas R. Wood, CFO, MIFireE
Fire Chief
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2851