FL City/County Fire Coverage Deal Lapses

June 6, 2018
A 30-year-old agreement between Alachua County and Gainesville designed to provide the quickest emergency response times lapsed June 1.

June 05 -- After months of haggling over who should respond to emergency calls throughout Alachua County, Gainesville and county officials came up empty handed.

The 30-year-old fire service agreement, designed to provide the quickest emergency response times regardless of the city line, lapsed on June 1.

No longer will the closest unit be dispatched for a 911 fire or medical call. The entities will be bound by their jurisdiction, leaving those in the county's unincorporated area at a higher risk of losing their home to a fire. It also could mean having to wait longer for a paramedic to assist during a heart attack or seizure.

Some areas will be affected worse than others, but fire rescue officials say just a few minutes can be critical in life and death situations.

"It's a game changer," Gainesville Fire Chief Jeff Lane said. "Our whole business is about minutes."

In 2017, Gainesville Fire Rescue responded to about 21,089 incidents which required 26,500 responding units, Lane said. At least 3,000 of those were outside city limits.

County fire services also have responded to calls inside the city limits, but officials said that is not as common, although numbers were not immediately available Monday.

About 62 percent of GFR's responses were medical related. The rest includes fires, alarms and car crashes.

GFR sends a fire truck to all medical-related calls because a fire truck is sometimes closer than the nearest ambulance. Although ambulance services won't be affected by the lapsed agreement, the time it takes someone to be treated by a paramedic could be delayed for some county residents.

"There's not enough ambulances to provide for the primary EMS calls," Lane said.

On the eve of the expiration of the fire service agreement, city and county officials argued over an appropriate extension but never reached one. Last weekend, as the agreement lapsed, the county responded to a fire at 7890 SW 82nd Drive in Gainesville outside city limits. The county called upon GFR for assistance. A city unit briefly responded and a bill to the county will follow.

Without the fire service agreement, Lane said he expects city response times to improve, as it will no longer need to respond to about 30 percent of the county's calls.

But those on the outer rim of the city won't be as lucky.

Alachua County Fire Chief Bill Northcutt said the area northwest of Gainesville, along 43rd Street and Millhopper Road, will be negatively impacted, as will some subdivisions south of Williston Road. County residents north of the Gainesville Regional Airport on State Road 24 also will be affected, he added.

"Without the agreement, there are areas that were primarily served by the city that will now wait longer for county units to respond," Northcutt said.

Areas outside city limits that have nearby county stations also could be at risk if a call requires multiple fire engines to be pulled from other coverage areas.

Northcutt said that if the county's fire engine in southeast Gainesville was needed elsewhere, the region would temporarily fall dependent on the volunteer Windsor Fire Department, which is about 15 minutes from the city line."

City and county officials could still come to an agreement in the future, though neither side has indicated a willingness to budge. Northcutt says the parties should use a mediator to settle the dispute.

In the meantime, he said, each side could request help if needed through use of a state mutual aid agreement, though no local agreement between the two exists.

Nearly 30 years ago, officials found themselves in a similar situation. It was resolved after someone's home burned to the ground because the closest unit wasn't dispatched to the area.

Asked if history could repeat itself, Northcutt said, "I certainly hope not."

___ (c)2018 The Gainesville Sun, Fla. Visit The Gainesville Sun, Fla. at www.gainesville.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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