SARASOTA — One of the main attractions of Siesta Key Beach is its sugar white powdery sand — a beauty to look at but a chore to slog through on foot, especially for emergency responders carrying a patient on a backboard.
On Thursday Sarasota County Fire Department, Fire Station 13 officially said thanks to the Siesta Key Fire and Rescue Advisory Council for helping fund both a new Polaris beach rescue vehicle and a Stryker Power Loading system for the ambulance.
“If there’s an emergency on the beach, a cardiac issue, time matters,” Sarasota County Fire Chief Mike Regnier said. “So the faster we can get to the patient, the quicker we do so, the better the outcome potentially can be.”
Before the department started using the Polaris rescue vehicle, ambulances would drive on the road to respond to the nearest beach access. Rescue personnel would walk a backboard out to the beach, locate the person in distress, then get them to the ambulance.
“We would take the backboard and whatever our life-saving equipment was with us out to the beach and we’d walk, the four of us,” said Sarasota County Fire Lt. Patrick Doyle. “And four people would have to get on each corner in order to carry the person through the sand and bring them all the way out, which could be a 300- to 400-yard walk.”
Now, rescue personnel can dispatch from the fire station, drive on the beach with the Polaris — an all-terrain vehicle with oversized tires — to find the person in distress, get them set up for transport on a special gurney that’s attached to the back of the Polaris, and meet up with the ambulance at the nearest beach access.
“We can actually work on the patient and not have four guys dedicated to carrying the patient,” Doyle said.
Transfer from the Polaris to the ambulance is easier too, because of the Stryker Lift.
The department has had that for more than two years — it was one of the first new ones acquired by the Sarasota County Fire Department.
“In the old days we had to bend over, pick them up, there was a lot of repetition on our backs,” said Regnier, who once worked out of the station on Siesta Key. “You think of a 30-year career on somebody who’s lifting and doing that for patients every single time they’re on duty, the repetition will cause injuries.
“This is a great way to protect our firefighters and also make that lift much easier and safer, so our patients can get into the back of the ambulances and get to the hospital without incurring any other injuries,” he added.
It’s too soon to say how much quicker emergency personnel can respond to distress calls from the beach, because the Polaris hasn’t been in use that long, Regnier said.
Doyle said that, in season, the Polaris has been used a few times a week.
Both pieces of equipment were paid for by the estate of Arlene Weisbond, who died in November 2012 but left money in for her estate for the Siesta Key Fire and Rescue Council to give to the department “for a job well done.”
The Polaris cost $33,000 as outfitted for beach rescue, while the lift cost $22,000.
Al Milner, the longest-tenured member of the of the Siesta Key Fire and Rescue Advisory Council ceremoniously turned the keys to the Polaris over to Mike Regnier.
Frank Jurenka, treasurer of the Siesta Key Fire and Rescue Advisory Council, briefly spoke about the longstanding partnership between the nonprofit and the fire house — both came into existence in 1974.
“We’re here for Siesta Key,” Jurenka said. “We really look forward to the fire department making good use of the equipment.”