Some temporary steps taken in January to reduce stresses on that overburdened fire station appear to be working.
Station 13 is one of 23 firehouses located in Tampa, but statistics showed it was handling one of every seven emergency response calls.
Fire-rescue workers were getting burned out. Response times were suffering.
“The statistics there are deplorable,” Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera said in January.
City leaders directed the fire department to something “right here, right now” to address the problem.
A presentation made to city council members on Thursday, suggests so far, so good.
By adding another advanced life support unit to station 13 and spreading peak work hours over seven days rather than five, the station has rapidly seen double-digit reductions in calls for service per day versus the same period last year.
That includes both fire suppression and rescue crews.
Another big impact has been seen by moving a fire truck to nearby station 11, resulting in a reduction of dispatch calls of nearly 50 percent for that unit.
“There’s hope now,” said Viera. “When you talk to the men and women there, there’s hope. Somebody’s listening to them. It’s not just me, it’s all of us. It’s you, it’s the mayor. Everybody’s listening to them. And they feel like things are changing.”
There are additional, long-term solutions in the works.
Council members were recently told Tampa needs newer fire trucks, more firefighters and eventually more fire stations.
In the meantime, this reallocation of resources appears to be working.
That’s good news not only for firefighters who have been overworked and overstressed but also for people served by fire station 13.
Viera used a baseball analogy, calling the progress a single, but not yet a home run.
He asked council members to direct staffers to look into the feasibility of using some of the American Rescue Plan money heading Tampa’s way for public safety equipment like new fire trucks.
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