MESSAGE FROM THE CHIEF

It is my honor to present the Sarasota County Fire Department Annual Report for the calendar year of 2022. It has been an incredible year and the purpose of this report is to recap our performance and recognize our major accomplishments.

First, I would like to extend my gratitude to all the men and women, commissioned and civilian, who serve our community and carry out our mission. It is because of the great work that each of you do every single day that we are able to serve, protect, and build community. Every SCFD member plays a critical role to support our mission and the success of our organization from the warehouse and maintenance staff who ensure all the apparatus, equipment, and supplies are in good working order, to the life safety inspectors that ensure buildings are built to code and safe for occupancy, all of our frontline personnel that save lives and protect property, and the administrative support personnel that make sure operations have what they need to do their jobs well none of this would be possible without each and every one of you. THANK YOU for all that you do!

Next, I would like to recognize and thank our leaders in county administration, the Sarasota County Board of County Commissioners, and our Director of Emergency Services, Richard Collins, for their unwavering support. Thank you for championing our goals and objectives and providing the resources we need to keep operations running.

Finally, I would like to thank all of our community members. Thank you for trusting us to keep you safe. We are committed to serving our community with PRIDE professionalism, respect, integrity, dedication, and excellence.

As we look at this year’s annual report, we see there was an 8% increase in SCFD’s dispatched incidents. This reflects the remarkable growth and increase in demand for service within Sarasota County. As a metro-sized fire department with over 600 personnel, we serve more than 400,000 permanent and seasonal residents combined.

In 2022, we published a five-year strategic plan that identified strategic initiatives, goals, and objectives. Following a major reorganization of the fire department in early 2022, we increased the number of administrative chief officers to improve span of control and enhance oversight of operations. We also completed an initiative to add a third person on all of our ladder trucks. We continued the integration of the lifeguard program into the fire department and added a new assistant chief position to oversee special programs, which includes lifeguards, marine operations, special operations, and wildfire mitigation. Our department continues to grow and expand the types of services and programs offered to meet the needs of our community.

In 2022, we celebrated the opening of a new Fire Station 9 and worked toward completion of a renovation of Fire Station 21. We also identified and acquired property for construction of a new Fire Station 27 to maintain and improve levels of service in south Sarasota County. In 2023, we will complete a rebuild of Fire Station 23, as well as begin construction on a new fire department administration building and complete design on a state-of-the-art regional fire training academy.

We are excited to publish a comprehensive community risk assessment and standards of cover document in 2023. This document will be critical to support the continued growth of our department as we evaluate current service delivery and plan for future service demands. We will continue progress toward our goal of becoming an internationally accredited fire department by the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. On this journey, we will continually improve and engage our stakeholders in the process, while also welcoming new SCFD members who are just beginning their careers. In 2023, we plan to host five new recruit classes to keep vacancies filled due to attrition.

After joining the Sarasota County Fire Department as the Fire Chief in November 2022, I could not be prouder and more impressed by the stellar team of individuals dedicated to leading this department forward. It is evident that 2022 was a successful year with many accomplishments thanks to this talented team of individuals. I look forward to all that will be accomplished in 2023 to support our community, and all the men and women who serve.

David A. Rathbun, MPA, CFO Fire Chief

SCFD RESPONDED TO 67,827 INCIDENTS IN CALENDAR YEAR 2022

This map shows our station locations and the boundaries of our four battalions, as well as a breakdown of urban and rural population densities within each battalion as determined by emergency service zone (ESZ).