East Manatee Fire Rescue expands specialized services

When a subcontractor was trapped in a trench off Moccasin Wallow Road in February 2023, the Hillsborough County Fire Rescue was called in for its specialty equipment. 

Those calls no longer have to be outsourced to other counties' emergency services because the East Manatee Fire Rescue purchased a 20-foot trailer stocked with tools for its Technical Rescue Team. 

The trailer and equipment cost approximately $380,000 and were put into service in mid-August. 

“East Manatee is a very large fire district compared to everywhere else in Manatee County,” Captain Josh Dillard said. “We’re able to provide a different level of service now. We could possibly perform a rescue by the time the equipment would have gotten there before.” 

Before the trailer arrived, Dillard said response times for advanced calls in East County could run up to two hours because just like the situation in Parrish, specialized equipment had to be borrowed from fire districts outside of or in other parts of Manatee County.

EMFR's Technical Rescue Team has 23 members now, but new members are added regularly. They work on the ladder trucks, which hasn't changed. 

“The trailer is supplemental in case they run into more intense or complex situations where they need additional equipment,” Administrative Officer Stephen Beecher said. 

The equipment covers five core specialties: aerial operations, rope operations, vehicle and machinery extrications, confined spaces and structural collapses.

A fire truck’s ladder can be used to rig the equipment for a rope rescue if someone is trapped underground, but sometimes the ladders can’t get close enough to hang over the access point, whether it be a trench or a manhole.

The trailer has a tripod that can create an artificial high spot to rig the ropes to and stabilize the rescuer as they drop in and out of the ground. 

Courtesy image

“Doing unsupported edge transitions is very nerve wracking, and it’s extremely difficult to get an unconscious person over an unsupported edge,” Dillard said. “The tripod makes the transition over an edge substantially easier for both the rescuer and the patient.” 

The trailer can haul up to 14,000 pounds of equipment. The tools range from basic to high-tech. A sheet of plywood is as necessary as a $19,439 Rescue Guardian during a structural collapse because they work together.

The Rescue Guardian is the most expensive piece of equipment inside the trailer. It can detect motion and knows how much weight a strut can hold. Struts work like columns that support the roof of a building. 

All together, those items allow rescue workers to enter a collapsed structure and build tunnels and safe spaces in which to work. 

Dillard said structural collapses and trench calls are emergencies that usually only happen once or twice during the course of a career in rescue operations. Extrications are the most common reason the trailer is likely to be hauled to a scene.

One of the new tools, a hydrofusion, can stabilize and lift a commercial-size vehicle if someone is trapped. 

While the equipment is new, Dillard said staff have been training and working toward this transition for about a decade.