Increased calls prompt push for new fire stations
 
By Melissa Hoyos
South Florida Sun-Sentinel

POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — Smoke flooded Neil Serpa's condominium after a fire broke out on the kitchen stove.

Serpa, 51, didn't make it out alive. Family members say he could have survived the July 30 blaze if Pompano Beach Fire Rescue workers had reached him sooner.

Emergency records indicate rescue workers took seven minutes and 46 seconds to arrive. By then Serpa was dead of smoke inhalation.

Six minutes is the national recommended response time set by health and fire officials.

"It concerns me because it could have been life or death," said Serpa's ex-wife Carol Serpa, who lives with their son Jonathan, 11, in Davie.

Serpa lived in the city's southwest where the fire department continues to report lagging response times. Last year, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel analyzed records and found longer-than-recommended emergency response times in 2004-05 for the southwest and northwest areas of the city, where the oldest and poorest residents live.

Fire Chief Harry Small blames the delays on increased calls for service that could be answered faster if the city built new fire stations. Small said firefighters often will be out on one emergency call when another comes in.

Officials must then summon backup from fire stations in other areas of town even farther away.

Small said development occurring farther and farther to the southwest, where Neil Serpa's condo was, often makes it difficult to respond within the six-minute limit.

However, the chief maintained firefighters arrived quickly at Serpa's residence and did everything they could to save him. Officials say they could have responded even faster had someone reported the fire sooner.

Small also contended the times listed on the Broward Sheriff's Office dispatch report for the blaze at Serpa's home were incorrect.

By recreating the emergency call from the 911 tape, Pompano Beach fire officials determined it took emergency personnel five minutes and three seconds to reach Serpa's home, Small said.

"The fire department got there as fast as they could," the chief said.

Firefighters who responded to the condo blaze came from Station 52 at 10 SW 27th Ave. , about 3.7 miles away During a fire call, Small said the clock starts when the 911 call operator at Broward Sheriff's Office begins entering information. The operator then relays the call to a dispatcher who sends it to fire department officials.

The clock stops when firefighters arrive on scene.

Carl Peterson, National Fire Protection Agency director of public fire protection, said his organization suggests departments aim for three goals: one minute for dispatchers to relay the call to firefighters, another minute for trucks to leave and four minutes to arrive on scene.

Peterson said fire departments meet those guidelines about 90 percent of the time, depending on a community's geography. He encouraged Pompano Beach to consider building another fire station in light of Neil Serpa's death.

"People don't have to die to get something like that to happen," he said.

Six minutes is the national recommendation for emergency response time because the brain suffers serious damage that long after the heart has stopped beating.

But a new station for this city's southwest and northwest neighborhoods won't come cheap.

Small estimated a new fire station could cost about $4 million. The city also would need to budget about $1 million a year to pay 25 full-time personnel.

Mayor Lamar Fisher said he realizes the need but that the money isn't available. He plans to discuss possible funding options, such as a bond issue, with City Manager Keith Chadwell.

This month, the city commission approved a sub-substation in a southwest area nursing home to help out with emergency medical response. The cost: $600,000 to pay three paramedic/firefighters overtime. The substation will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and will have an ambulance.

City Commissioner George Brummer, who oversees the southwest area, said the city's budget woes, worsened by recent state-mandated property tax cuts, prevent officials from setting aside money.

Last year, he told the Sun-Sentinel he didn't see a need for a new fire station. Now he wants to revisit the issue. "It doesn't look like it is getting better. We've seen an increase in population and I don't know if we can respond to that," Brummer said.

If extra measures are taken to protect the community against fires, it will be too late to benefit Neil Serpa, his ex-wife said.

"I'm just so disillusioned with the fire department," Carol Serpa said.

Copyright 2007 South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News