By Rich Pollack
A full year after becoming the county’s first new fire department in 30 years, Highland Beach Fire Rescue has numbers showing that it matched the expectations of some while exceeding the expectations of others, especially those who predicted failure.
“Our service delivery is unrivaled and our financial expectations are being met,” said Town Manager Marshall Labadie. “We hear good things about our fire department on a weekly basis.”
Since it began in May 2024, Highland Beach Fire Rescue had responded to just over 900 calls during the full year ending April 30. That works out to about 2.5 calls per day, although the numbers are higher during the season.
“We average about four or five calls in the winter months,” said Fire Rescue Chief Glenn Joseph. “We anticipate about 1,000 calls in a full calendar year.”
The number of calls in a day can be unpredictable, he said, with the most calls in a day — nine — coming during one 24-hour shift in July.
A number that stands out is the department’s average response time, which was just above 4 minutes in the first four months of this year and which has been far below 5 minutes consistently.
“It’s a great response time,” Joseph said.
One of the factors contributing to that response time is the small size of the town — just over 3 miles long — along with the fact that the town’s new fire station is centrally located.
Joseph said that the department has put a focus on getting the fire rescue personnel on a truck and out of the station within a minute of being dispatched. The average dispatch to en route time was about 40 seconds during the first four months of this year and a little longer from May to December last year.
“We encourage people to not delay getting out of the station,” Joseph said.
It’s not surprising that most of the calls Highland Beach Fire Rescue handles are medical related.
More than half of the calls, a little under 530, were medical calls excluding motor vehicle accidents with injuries. Falls make up a large portion of those calls.
One area where the department saw a significant drop in calls from the first eight months of operation to the last four was in the number of false alarms.
From May to December, fire rescue responded to 45 false alarms, or about 51/2 calls per month. In January through April of this year that number dropped to just 14.
Joseph credited the department’s risk reduction team for the decrease through its inspections of buildings and its comprehensive approach to making sure all fire safety equipment is functioning properly.
The chief said that lowering the number of false alarms reduces the chance of an accident — responding vehicles go with lights and siren — which could injure fire rescue personnel on their way to a call as well as residents.
He said too many false alarm calls could lead to residents becoming complacent and starting to disregard the alarms.
Highland Beach’s new fire department opened on May 1, 2024, in a newly constructed station, ending a 30-year partnership with Delray Beach providing staffing for the town’s fire station.
Labadie said that the last full year that Delray Beach provided the service, the city charged the town about $5.4 million. Running the station now costs Highland Beach about $5.7 million a year, but Labadie said comparing the two is difficult because there’s no way of knowing if Delray Beach’s charge would escalate and if so, how much that would have been.
He also pointed out that Highland Beach now staffs the station with seven firefighter/paramedics on a shift while Delray Beach provided five on a 24-hour shift. Highland Beach now has three personnel on the rescue truck and can fully staff two rescue units if there are simultaneous calls.
“We believe we’re providing better service at a lower cost,” the town manager said.
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