Flagler County Fire & Rescue

Back in November, 2008, I had the privilege of sponsoring a portion of a local Firefighter-Paramedic competition. The local Flagler County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) competition team won against teams from all over Florida. The teams are subjected to a series of difficult scenarios and judged on their ability to handle the emergency situation in an timely and technically correct manner.

Make no mistake - these professionals are good... really good. The local team of Dennis Kline, Cody King, Caryn Prather, and Mike Pius (Left to Right in photo above) are National Champions (twice) and have 15 Top Ten finishes in events all over the country. Their prowess has earned them and a team from New York City an invitation to a multi-national event in Prague, Czech Republic!

Don Petito, the Flagler County Fire Chief, is proud of his folks. "It would be great if we could get everyone to try a competition, because there's so much to be gained from doing it," he said. Petito has a hunch that the event in Prague will include some sort of Swine Flu scenario, based on the recent outbreak and heightened media coverage.

Like in sports, teams have a tendency to "perform like they practice." Back in the day, when I was going through Army Officer Candidate School (OCS), we had a series of training films titled, "What Now, Lieutenant?" A difficult situation would be created and we'd be graded on how we responded... and there was always more than one way to solve the problem. Our paramedics train in a variety of settings, to include tornadoes, fires, floods, earthquakes, terrorist attacks, chemical spills, plane crashes, and marine emergencies.

The team raises money for competition fees and travel expenses with sponsorships, yard sales, spaghetti suppers, etc. If you read this and would like to make a contribution to these local Heroes and this worthy program... contact me at 386-931-1987 or frankzedar@gmail.com, and I'll put you in touch with them. Also, you could visit my website at: http://www.realestateforheroes.com/.

(Information, in part, from Daytona Beach News-Journal article by Heather Scofield and photos from David Massey)