CCFD sees busiest year ever; tops 30,000 calls
The Cape Coral Fire Department recently released its annual report, detailing its missions, vision, and values, as well as a look into the future.
The report offered a glimpse inside the everyday workings of CCFD and how they assist the community day in and day out not just by responding to emergencies, but through fire inspections, community CPR classes, and managing major disasters such as Hurricane Ian.
CCFD Chief and Emergency Management Director Ryan Lamb, in the report, stated, “The year our City’s leadership took on the challenge of creating Cape Compass, the City’s Strategic Plan through 2030. The city’s first goal is to ‘Deliver exceptional City services…’ And ‘Keep Cape Coral safe through public safety service excellence, professionalism, accountability, and transparency.’ This support of the Fire Department is unparalleled and positively impacts the lives of our residents.”
CCFD saw its busiest year ever in 2022, responding to more than 30,000 calls for service. 2022 also saw the opening of Fire Station 12, and construction of Fire Station 13 and a fire training facility are scheduled to begin this year.
In terms of major fires fought in the city’s in a 140-square mile area of coverage, there was a potential property loss of $23.5 million. Actual loss was mitigated to $4.6 million, equating to a save of 76%.
The department is made up of 228 certified personnel totaling 2,369 years of service, including 33 veterans.
CCFD has 132 EMTs and 96 paramedics. The Hazardous Materials Team is made up of 60 technicians trained in areas of hazard pre-planning, chemistry, event mitigation, hazard analysis, and decontamination. CCFD’s Marine Team consists of 75 members and three boats, and responds to fires, search and rescues, and vessels in distress.
CCFD also has 12 members who are part of Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 6; a regional team made up of personnel from Manatee to Collier County, and can be deployed locally and nationally. There were 18 new firefighter hires in 2022, as well as various other positions in the department, and 26 promotions.
CCFD’s revenue in 2022 was $49,931,519 with the majority coming from the Fire Service Assessment and the General Fund. Of the department’s budget in 2022, $35,350,016 went towards operations, $3,874,616 to administration, $1,274,040 to logistics, $1,244,494 to fire prevention, $805,198 to professional standards, $681,293 to EMS, and $$363,580 to Special Operations.
In 2022, CCFD received $620,000 total in grant funding, one being the Assistance to Firefighters Grant to train 85 CCFD firefighters on the Blue Card Incident Command Program, a nationally recognized incident command certification system that establishes industry best practices for managing emergency incidents.
The report details the local State of Emergency due to Hurricane Ian from Sept. 27 to Oct. 11. On Sept. 28 from 8:11 a.m. when winds reached sustained gusts of 45 mph to 11 p.m. when emergency services resumed, more than 900 calls were received and queued for response by CCFD. After the storm, clearing the calls took 46.5 hours. Public Works and CCFD personnel worked together to successfully bring water to Cape Coral Hospital, preventing patients from a forced evacuation. The week following the storm, firefighters responded to nearly 1,100 calls for service, including 45 structure fires, doubling the average number of calls in a week.
“This storm devastated our community and destroyed many homes including those of several firefighters and staff members,” Lamb stated. “All members of the Fire Department worked many long hours in the response and recovery effort. Their work is awe-inspiring. Additionally, we are forever grateful to the many people and departments from across the Country who came to help us in our time of need.”
At the city’s Emergency Operations Center, 1,289 employees were activated for initial response, working 24-hour days from Sept. 26 through Oct. 11. Volunteers and city staff answered 5,462 calls from residents between Sept. 27 and Oct. 10. Fire stations served as a hub for the community to charge electronics and get information they were unable to receive due to lack of power, internet, or cell service. CCFD played a major role in points of distribution and setting up hygiene stations. They ordered and managed resources such as generators, lights, and street signs that came in from around the country, and coordinated the housing and feeding of all emergency personnel working for the city and mutual aid. Roughly 2 million cubic yards of hurricane debris from 1,4000 miles of Cape Coral roads has been collected — six times the amount from Hurricane Irma.
“Hurricane Ian taught us many lessons but most importantly it taught us our community is not buildings or possessions,” Lamb said. “Our community is the great people who call Cape Coral home”
Officials said emergency responses in 2022 increased by 11% from the year prior, totaling 30,061. The average response time for CCFD was 1:15 to dispatch, 1:28 to turn out, 6:34 to travel, and 9:27 total.
CCFD was also out and about in the community in 2022, putting together 24 events reaching 4,735 individuals. These included fire safety education programs for elementary students, high schoolers, Boy and Girl Scouts, and more. Special events included staples such as CCFD toy drive that collected toys for 500 children, Breakfast with Santa, 9/11 remembrance ceremony, Keep the Wreath Green Campaign, and more.
CCFD also recognized the outstanding work of individuals in its “Of the Year” recipients. Included was Emergency Management Coordinator Caroline Briones, Employee of the Year; Firefighter Nicholas Lorenzo, Probationary Firefighter of the Year; Firefighter Henis Bitri, Paramedic of the Year; Lt. Laurel Cornelius, Firefighter of the Year; and Battalion Chief Christopher Moore, Fire Chief’s Award recipient.
CCFD is also working towards its 5-year goal of accreditation from the Center of Public Safety Excellence and Commission on Fire Accreditation International.
Why is accreditation important? Lamb said to compare it to a school an individual would send their child to, or a doctor. There is peace of mind and standards to expect when an entity is accredited by an esteemed organization. Lamb said there are 308 accredited fire departments worldwide, 24 being in Florida.
“Accreditation is more than a sticker,” Lamb said. “It’s about the process that you took to achieve that. And so we’re already going through the process as we’ve taken care of a number of the steps to get to accreditation (and) we’ve identified a lot of areas that we need to take some action to improve. That’s part of this process. You look at all of these different areas and you continuously look for improvement.”
Lamb said the new vision for the fire department moving forward is, “Exceptional service, together.”
“All of us together need to work towards this goal.”
Components of accreditation include having a Self-Assessment Manual, Community Risk Assessment/Standards of Cover, and Strategic Plan.
Lamb said the department’s goal is to reach the 90th percentile to provide upstanding service to residents. The department is currently working on its Self-Assessment Manual (have already completed other steps) that covers 11 different areas from governance and administration, to fire prevention, to training, resources, and more.
“There are 287 categories that we have to look at and self (assess),” Lamb said.
The department, for each category, has to develop a description defining what they currently do, an appraisal, or how has it performed, and then a plan on how to improve it, with references.
“This is good for our community, it’s good for our firefighters, and it’s good for our entire organization,” Lamb said.
Lamb said the department is on track to finish its Self-Assessment Manual in July. They hope by October a peer team of independent reviewers will come in to look over documents to prove CCFD meets the standard. Lamb said if all goes according to plan, CCFD could be accredited by March of 2024.
“Continuous improvement is what this is all about,” Lamb said. “As we identify issues, we plan on how to improve it. We implement and execute those changes, and then review how that process has worked and continue to go through it.”
He added accreditation status is not a “one-and-done,” it will be checked in on and maintained continuously.
To reach CJ HADDAD, please email cjhaddad@breezenewspapers.com