Miami Fire-Rescue Department
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The Miami Fire-Rescue Department, also referred to as the City of Miami Department of Fire-Rescue, provides
fire protection Fire protection is the study and practice of mitigating the unwanted effects of potentially destructive fires. It involves the study of the behaviour, compartmentalisation, suppression and investigation of fire and its related emergencies, as we ...
and
emergency medical services Emergency medical services (EMS), also known as ambulance services or paramedic services, are emergency services that provide urgent pre-hospital treatment and stabilisation for serious illness and injuries and transport to definitive care. ...
for the city of
Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
,
Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
. The department is notable for being the first in the nation to equip all apparatus with
two-way radio A two-way radio is a radio that can both transmit and receive radio waves (a transceiver), unlike a broadcast receiver which only receives content. It is an audio (sound) transceiver, a transmitter and receiver in one unit, used for bidirection ...
s as well as being the first to use fog nozzles.


History

The Miami Fire-Rescue Department was formally created on July 17, 1898 when five men gathered in a Miami bar to remedy, what they saw as, the outrageous cost of fire insurance in the city. At the time, the premiums in Miami were the highest in the nation, with annual rates at eight percent of a structure's value. This was largely due to the fact that the city, constructed of all wood, had no fire service. In an effort to reduce the cost of insurance, the men agreed to form the
volunteer Volunteering is a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...
Miami Fire-Rescue Department. In June 1969, the department became the first in the United States to successfully revive a patient in the field through defibrillation. By using radio transmission of an EKG, as well as radio contact with doctors at
Jackson Memorial Hospital Jackson Memorial Hospital (also known as "Jackson" or abbreviated "MJMH") is a non-profit, tertiary care hospital, the primary teaching hospital of the University of Miami's School of Medicine, and the largest hospital in the United States with 1 ...
and the University of Miami School of Medicine, the firefighters were able to administer a shock to the patient who was revived from a lifeless state. Three years later, the department became the first in the nation to use military anti-shock trousers (MAST), inflatable pants that force blood from the legs of a patient in
hemorrhagic shock Hypovolemic shock is a form of shock caused by severe hypovolemia (insufficient blood volume or extracellular fluid in the body). It could be the result of severe dehydration through a variety of mechanisms or blood loss. Hypovolemic shock is a m ...
to the more vital regions of the body.


USAR Task Force 2

The Miami Fire-Rescue Department is the sponsoring agency for USAR Task Force 2, one of the two FEMA Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces in the state of Florida. The task force is a 210-member organization deploying teams of seventy rescue workers, search dogs, physicians and structural engineers who travel with of equipment to assist in major disasters. Some of their notable deployments include
Hurricane Opal Hurricane Opal was a large and powerful Category 4 hurricane that caused severe and extensive damage along the northern Gulf Coast of the United States in October 1995. The fifteenth named storm, ninth hurricane and strongest tropical cyclon ...
(1995), September 11 attack at the WTC (2001), Hurricane Katrina (2005) and the
2010 Haiti earthquake A catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest department, approximately west of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's c ...
.


Stations & Apparatus


References


External links

{{coord, 25, 46, 43.43, N, 80, 11, 28.59, W, display=title Ambulance services in the United States Fire departments in Florida Government of Miami Medical and health organizations based in Florida 1898 establishments in Florida