Fire Department Issues
 

Taken From the IAFF Local Villages Fire Dept Facebook

***Staffing Alert***Like and Share***
Today, January 28th, 2020, the following units are out of service due to staffing:
Rescue 41
Rescue 44

The following units are staffed with only two firefighters:
Engine 40
Ladder 43
Tower 51

To express your concern please contact the following officials:

District Management
352-751-3939

Fire-Rescue Administration
352-205-8280

This affects residents of Lake and Sumter, not Marion.

:what: What about this scenario...... a resident of Marion Co. has an accident in the Sumter or Lake Co. portion of the Villages. Maybe has a heart attack on a golf course in the Sumter or Lake Co. portion of the Villages. Maybe chokes on food while having lunch at a restaurant in the Sumter or Lake Co. portion of the villages. :ohdear: Firefighters do much more than fight fires and emergency situations happen all over the entire Villages.

To the men and women of Local 4770 IAFF - Thank you for your service to us and BE SAFE! :ho:

I think you read too much into that. By residents I meant in Marion County. I am very familiar with my job I’ve been doing it for 11 years 😊

The more important thing is the original post. I hope this is not a normal thing for The Villages Fire moving forward to save money.

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Thank you for your service

:ho: Thank you. It was my honor to serve.

I ran short handed many times in my career.....now disabled because of it...life safety ....should be administration and political priority....running shorthanded puts the citizens at risk..the .....shutting down stations is crazy...why did you build them in first place?.......come on people get your act together!

I am a retired Washington DC firefighter. I pay taxes in Florida and the Staffing of our fire departments here in The Villages is unacceptable. It is not only dangerous for the firefighters but it is dangerous for the residents that live here and depend on our fire department for their safety.

24% raise in taxes and they don't have minimum manning? People need to be up in arms about this. Firefighter Union needs to get a better contract. There should be minimum manning according to the NFPA and overtime for manning shortages.

More info please
 

We need more information. Is this rare, or does it happen often? Is it because we are short staffed, or are people out sick? Is recruiting keeping up with our needs?

We had a significant increase to the fire charge on our tax bills a couple years ago so that firefighters would get a good pay increase. We had been training people and they would then jump to another city. How do we compare to surrounding communities now? Is that still happening?

:) Village Firefighters are District employees not County. The tax increase was Sumter Co. property taxes. But you are right there should be reasonable minimum manning..... I prefer the term "Safety Staffing" for the safety of the residents and the firefighters. :ho:

The politicians know they can rely on the silent majority to remain....SILENT!

Hence no response to the real issue!!!

Recent property tax increase has nothing to do with fire services. That is billed separately as a fire fee. I have been told that the fire fee for commercial and residential, in Sumter County, are the same not a flat rate for residential and a sq ft % for commercial like most counties are. If true then I suspect that is part of the funding issue facing management.
I have voiced my concern with district management regarding the short staffing of fire apparatus.
More and more building coming will mean increasing the fire fee to support proper staffing.

If you roll into a working structure fire with two members on a rig, there’s not much you can do. If it’s an engine company, one member is operating the pump panel, that leaves the remaining member to stretch a line and get it into operation without a back up or officer. On a ladder company, one may need to operate the aerial ladder or tower, once again that may leave one member to possibly force entry into the premises and initiate a search. Unsafe, to say the least.