Department History

Prior to 1974, limited fire protection was provided to the county through an interlocal agreement with the City of St. Augustine. The St. Augustine Fire Department responded to structure fires that occurred in the unincorporated areas within ten miles of the city limits. Fire protection was provided to the remainder of the county by ten volunteer fire departments, all of which operated as independent agencies. None of these departments received financial assistance from the county, instead relying strictly on donations. In 1974, an ordinance was adopted creating a Municipal Service Taxing Unit (MSTU) and setting a millage cap of .5 of a mil for the unincorporated areas of the County; the millage rate was subsequently levied at .5 of a mil. The ordinance was further amended in 1980 to increase the cap at .75 of a mil, where it remained for twenty-three years. The millage rate fluctuated between .5 and .75 mills throughout the years, primarily providing for capital purchases and the operating costs of the volunteer fire departments.

In 1995, St. Johns County contracted with TriData Corporation to conduct a study of the fire departments and their individual and collective ability to provide fire protection services. The final report included numerous recommendations regarding the administration and delivery of emergency services within the County. The County then retained Emergency Response Systems to work on the report recommendations, in order to facilitate actions and initiate plans. The major components of the plan included creating a formal relationship between the County and the volunteer organizations and the consolidation of the County’s Emergency Medical Services with the fire service. The plan was implemented in October of 1997 when forty-eight (48) EMS paramedics cross-trained as firefighters and joined seven (7) career firefighters, thereby creating the County’s first career staff of fifty-five (55) firefighter/paramedics.

The volunteer fire departments continued to face the challenges of greater demands for service, increasing population, a changing risk environment, and stringent training mandates. As the numbers of emergency responses continued to increase, there were decreasing numbers of volunteers available to respond to calls. Recognizing that the County had outgrown its ability to depend on a volunteer force, the Department began staffing engines and stations throughout the county with career firefighters.

The Department continued to be faced with the challenges of enhancing the existing services, while addressing the growth and development throughout the county on a millage that was originally intended to fund a volunteer service. The Department began developing a five-year growth plan in 2002 to address enhancement of existing services and plan for the impact of expected growth on its future ability to provide fire protection and emergency medical services. This plan, which addressed staffing, facilities, equipment, and 911 emergency communications, was presented to the Board of County Commissioner’s in 2003. The Board increased the Fire District Tax to 1.2 mils in order to properly fund the plan and provide for the mission of public safety. As of this date, St. Johns County Fire Rescue is meeting the expectations of the plan in the hiring of personnel, planning and building fire rescue stations, purchasing quality equipment to meet department needs, and addressing emergency 911 communications.

At the same time, national and state standards emerged that would affect fire departments throughout the country. The Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) published the final rule for the Standard for Respiratory Protection (April 8, 1998), which encompassed many industries and impacted the fire service through two specific sections. These sections specify procedures for immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) atmospheres and interior structural fire fighting, and are commonly referred to as the two in/two out rule. This rule obligates fire departments to provide a minimum team of firefighters to perform an interior attack on a fire – two firefighters for the attack team, and two firefighters for the back up rescue team.

Florida Administrative Code 69A-62.003, Uniform Minimum Firefighter Employment Standards, addresses the adoption of the OSHA rule, incorporating the two in/two out provisions as they pertain to firefighters and firefighter employers. Through written policies and procedures, the Department advised the state of the intention to comply with the two in/two out provision, in order to provide for the safety and welfare of our firefighters and to comply with the standard.

Further defining the need for increased staffing, the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) adopted in 2001 NFPA 1710-Organization and Deployment of Fire Suppression Operations, Emergency Medical Operations, and Special Operations to the Public by Career Fire Departments, which specifies the minimum criteria for addressing the effectiveness and efficiency of career public fire rescue agencies. Simply put, the standard identifies how many firefighters should be responding to emergencies, as well as establishing benchmark response times. NFPA states that eleven (11) firefighters are considered the first alarm standard in order to make an effective search and attack on a basic residential fire. The number of personnel doubles when accounting for extended operations, extreme heat and ladder operations. High hazard occupancies (hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, etc.) would obviously require even more personnel to effectively manage the incident.

The jobs identified in the NFPA standard of establishing water supply, attacking the fire, completing a search and rescue of potential victims, the ventilation of extreme heat and explosive gases, providing for firefighter safety through a Rapid Intervention Team, and the direction of an Incident Commander are simultaneous functions. It is extremely important to have the numbers of personnel on scene within established response time parameters for the safe and efficient management of structure fires.