Copyright 2005 Times Publishing Company
By ASJYLYN LODER
St. Petersburg Times
Residents of High Point have resoundingly endorsed their volunteer fire department, the latest development in a monthslong tussle with the county over who will provide fire service to the retirement community.
“It’s up to the county commissioners now. We got the vote,” High Point fire Chief Wilfred Grenier said. By a count of 1,192 to 104, the residents voted in favor of their volunteers, he said.
An age-restricted community of 1,600 mobile homes, High Point surveyed its residents after the county threatened to take over the force. The vote is by no means the end of the debate, said County Commissioner Chris Kingsley, who is conducting a review of High Point Volunteer Fire Department’s safety standards.
“All of the indicators that we got back in terms of numbers and runs and who is on those runs indicates that their level of service has dipped below what is considered acceptable standards,” said Kingsley, who was a Clearwater firefighter for 10 years.
In September, the County Commission decided to review the fire safety standards of High Point’s volunteers, poll the community’s residents and bring the issue back before the board Dec. 6. In the meantime, the county took temporary lead at High Point fires.
The flashpoint in the controversy was a Labor Day weekend blaze that burned one mobile home to the ground while the Hernando County Fire Rescue Department waited at High Point’s gates for the understaffed volunteers to call them in.
A woman was found dead in the home, prompting an acrimonious squabble between the volunteers, who claimed they asked county firefighters for assistance, and Hernando County firefighters, who said the volunteers were unprepared to respond but failed to ask for help. It later turned out that the mobile home resident lit her doublewide on fire before shooting herself in the head. However, the debate over the volunteers’ ability to effectively respond to a fire continued.
Commissioner Diane Rowden, who has been sharply critical of the volunteers, said, “We just have to make our decision based on safety issues, and that is what we’re doing.”
She argued that High Point’s volunteers are not meeting safety standards, while the community’s residents get protection from the county for free.
High Point homeowners pay a voluntary $45 each year to the volunteers, and are exempt from the $128 assessed annually to county homeowners to support Hernando County Fire Rescue.
According to documents the volunteer force provided to the county earlier this month, the department had only three certified firefighters, and only one lived in High Point.
Grenier said the department has recruited two more in the past month, neither in High Point, in an attempt to stave off a county takeover.
State guidelines require four certified firefighters to be on the scene before any firefighter enters the “hot zone.” The records showed that for six of 11 fires in 2005, High Point had no certified firefighters on the scene.
Grenier, an assistant fire chief in Massachusetts for 10 years, said, “I have people on the department who have 10, 15, 20 years’ experience, but according to the state of Florida they don’t know nothing. But, you know, experience is the best teacher. I don’t care whether you have a trailer fire here, or a trailer fire in Canada or in Maine or wherever, they all burn the same.”
Kingsley expects to have the results of the county’s review next week. It will be presented to commissioners at their Dec. 6 meeting.