WPBFD History

CHAPTER FIFTEEN Looking to the Future 1992 to 1994 The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be. Paul Valéry

A part of fire department history that was thought to be lost forever was found by an alert firefighter with a distant memory of a ringing bell. In 1905 the first fire station in West Palm Beach was dedicated. Hanging in the tower was a bell that summoned the volunteers when they were needed. The bell had been lost since 1948 when the old station was torn down for more modern quarters. Walter Byrd recalled hearing an old bell in the Lake Worth neighborhood where he grew up. In early 1992 he returned to search for the ringing memories, thinking that it might possibly be the lost bell. Byrd's sixth sense proved accurate. He learned that the bell had been donated to a church at 4th Street and Sapodilla Ave- nue back in 1948 and had later been moved to the church in Lake Worth. March 11, 1992, forty West Palm Beach firefighters attended a special dedication at #3 Station. A plaque had been made with the following message: "This room is dedicated in memory of a fellow firefighter - Lawrence J. Grasso." The plaque was placed on a wall by Kevin Green and David Baxter to honor the man who had worked most of his career at the north-end station. Larry's widow, Linda, also attended. Fire personnel responded to an unusual emergency at the Holiday Inn, 1301 Belvedere Road, on the after- noon of March 23, 1992. Poisonous carbon monoxide fumes from the boiler room had seeped into the lower three floors of the hotel. Three guests were in critical condition by the time firefighters located them uncon- scious in a third floor room. Paramedics treated the three patients whose skin had turned a cherry red color and transported them to the hospital. "When they turn cherry red it's pretty severe," said Chief Robert Rehr. "That's advanced stages of carbon monoxide poisoning." A police officer and a hotel employee were also taken to area hospitals with less serious symptoms. The entire building was quickly evacuated once the potential threat had been identified. The building's ventilation sys- tem was turned off and exhaust fans used to clear the air. An investigation of the boiler concluded that closed vents and leaks in an exhaust duct allowed fumes to seep up- wards into the room where the three critical patients were found. The boiler itself was thought to have malfunc- tioned compounding the problem. The hotel was closed for nearly a week as a new boiler system was installed. Two of the poisoning victims recovered and were released from the hospital on March

1992 The first mission for the SWAT-Medics took place in January of 1992. The Drug Enforcement Agency re- quested their assistance in a "high risk" drug raid in the Town of Lake Park. The medics were deputized in order to work outside West Palm Beach. January 11, 1992, the Fallen Firefighter' s Memorial was dedicated at the Florida State Fire College in Lowell, Florida. A life size bronze statue of a firefighter at rest stood atop a raised masonry platform. Two large granite stones behind the statue listed the names of seventy-eight Florida firefighters who had lost their lives in the line of duty since 1885. The thirty-fourth name is that of Cap- tain Joseph H. Juergen of the West Palm Beach Fire De- partment. Captain Juergen drowned in a training exercise on June 23, 1941. Juergen family members were escorted to the dedication by Chief of Training Patrick Morris, Firefighter John Boccanfuso, Fire Inspector Mike Car- sillo, and retired Chief of Training Palmlee Howe. The ceremonies included comments from Deland Fire Chief John Wright and Olin Greene, Director of the United States Fire Administration. The department's smoke detector give-away program was credited with saving several lives in early 1992. More than 200 smoke detectors had been installed since inception of the program. On January 20 five people es- caped a 3:18 a.m. fire in their house because of one of these detectors. The fire at 200 Wrena Drive started when boxes of Christmas decorations came into contact with an exposed heating element of a hot water heater. One month later, on February 20, a burning pot of food on a stove at 424 Douglas Avenue activated another smoke detector that had been installed by the fire depart- ment. An alert neighbor heard the alarm and called po- lice. They broke down the door finding the house full of smoke. Firefighters searching the house found the occu- pant in her bed, partially overcome by the acrid atmos- phere. She was treated at Good Samaritan Hospital for smoke inhalation. A new Fire Equipment Maintenance Facility opened on January 23, 1992. The shop was relocated from the old National Guard Armory garage on Parker Avenue to the city complex. The new building, 40,000 square feet in area and constructed at a cost of $409,000, offered improved facilities for the maintenance of fire department apparatus.

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