Fire & Emergency Services Gulf Coast recently earned the 2021 Commander, Navy Region Southeast (CNRSE) Fire Department of the Year award (large category).
The department has a coverage area consisting of five fixed fire stations — Naval Air Station (NAS) Pensacola, Sherman Field, Corry Station, Saufley Field and NAS Whiting Field — along with 13 outlying fields throughout Florida and Alabama. The department operates in two states, five counties and covers 4,500 square miles of flying area.
“Our primary mission is to prevent loss of life, injury to personnel, and damage to property resulting from fires and other emergencies,†said Chief Dan Chiappetta, Fire & Emergency Services Gulf Coast chief.
Chiappetta said the department responds to emergencies involving people, facilities, structures, aircraft, ships in port, transportation equipment, and other assets on and off the installation. The department is equipped to respond to injuries, fires, explosions, hazardous materials releases and both natural and man-made disasters.
“Additionally, our core functions are fire suppression, fire prevention, public fire safety education, fire service training, hazardous materials emergency response, rescue, emergency medical services, wild land fire preparation and response, as well as emergency management planning and response,†Chiappetta said.
The department provides rescue from water and diving incidents, structural collapse, aircraft incidents, confined spaces and other immediately dangerous to life and health (IDLH) atmospheres.
In the past year the department:
-Responded to 1,194 emergencies onboard four separate installations and 114 mutual aid calls in the local community.
-Provided a mutual aid response to a three alarm apartment fire. The firefighters’ direct attack stopped the spread of the fire to adjacent apartments and saved the lives and property in more than 50 units.
-Coordinated and executed medical and Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF) support to both SpaceX and NASA personnel during the return of four astronauts from the International Space Station.
-Trained and educated more than 36,000 military and civilian children and adults in home fire safety.
-Worked directly with the Forestry Department to sustain installation natural resources; Planned, coordinated and successfully completed several environmentally sensitive controlled burns.
Chiappetta said the public doesn’t always witness the tremendous amount of work that goes into the fire and emergency services career field, but the department’s personnel continue to go above and beyond time and time again.
“I couldn’t be prouder of the men and women in our department,†Chiappetta said. “They work exceptionally hard day in and day out to constantly prepare themselves through training and education to be prepared to respond to any type of emergency they may encounter and be able to mitigate it effectively and efficiently.â€
Christopher Overton, a firefighter and emergency medical technician with the department, said the team is a special group of people, and all of the personnel closely work together every day to learn and grow in the field.
“There are a lot of moving pieces in this machine, and it takes good leadership and strong followers to keep this thing operating as smooth as it does,†Overton said.
Chiappetta said he is extremely proud of the department’s recent selection as the CNRSE Fire Department of the Year.
“It’s a great accomplishment for our department and I feel it shows the dedication and commitment our men and women have to our department,†Chiappetta said. “It solidifies the fact that our personnel are truly the best at what they do. We prove it every day by what we accomplish but this type of award shows throughout the regions that we are the department that sets that standards of excellence time and time again.â€