January 7, 1957: Chief of the Department Frank C. Kelly and Superintendent of Machinery L.K. Pickett inspected the Jacksonville Fire Department’s first 100-foot aerial ladder. The American LaFrance truck went into service as Ladder 1 at Adam and Ocean Streets and replaced an 85-foot hook and ladder. Cost of the apparatus was $44,000. (Article and picture attached)

January 7, 1970: Rescue firemen Bob Kotsis and A.J. Lindsay responded to a 44-year-old woman who delivered a baby and claimed she was unaware she was pregnant. (Article attached)

January 7, 1970: Firefighters from three fire departments fought a 2-story, 4-unit apartment building fire in Mayport at 4515 Ocean Street. Jacksonville District Chief J.F. Gregory said the 3:45 a.m. fire was answered by the Jacksonville Fire Department, the Atlantic Beach Fire Department, and the Mayport Naval Station Fire Department. (Article and picture attached)

January 7, 1972: A call volume summary for 1971 appeared in a Fraternal Order of Firemen newsletter. JFD answered 32,006 calls in 1971. 18,384 were classified as rescue calls and 13,622 were classified as combat calls. Rescue 3 had the last call of 1971 and the first call of 1972. The first W-3 of 1972 was answered by Car 5, Engines 5 and 8, and Ladder 10 for a house fire at 413 Copeland Street. (FOOF article attached)

January 7, 1972: The Florida Times-Union reported on a rehearsal for an upcoming training exercise on the St. John’s River. Public Safety Director John Waters is pictured on the far right and Chief of Rescue James Dowling is also far right with his back to the camera. (Captioned picture attached)

January 7, 1974: Battalion Chief R.E. Dopson and his men responded to a fire around 4:25 a.m. onboard a 15,010-ton freighter, the Angela F, at the Jacksonville Shipyards where it was under repair. Reportedly a broken fuel line started the fire in the engine room where it was confined. A Navy foam truck was called to the scene by Dopson and foam was used to extinguish the fire. (Article attached)

January 7, 1974: Southside Ford, 5303 Beach Boulevard, was the site of a second-alarm fire around 6 in the morning. District Fire Chief J.F. Gregory said first arriving firefighters initially saw cars under the front canopy of the dealership on fire before noticing fire was also in the interior of the business. (Article with picture attached)

January 7, 1975: Two newspaper articles addressed the advantages of the upcoming new fire station in the Baymeadows area. That station, Fire Station 44, was nearing completion on Western Way off Baymeadows Road. During the construction of the station an engine company was stationed out of a nearby warehouse and the crew in an adjacent mobile home. (Article attached)

January 7, 1977: A failure to properly communicate between Sheriff’s Office and Fire Rescue dispatchers resulting in a delay in a rescue unit reaching the scene of a shooting involving a police officer as the victim. Officers J.M. Bogers was shot in San Marco on Palm Avenue, in proximity to Baptist Hospital and Fire Station 13. A rescue and engine were initially erroneously dispatched to Palm Street on the city’s west side of town.

To understand how this happened one needs a tutorial on the physical layout and phone equipment of the JSO Communication Center in operation at that time inside the old Duval County Courthouse. There were four zone dispatchers and the Zones 1 and 3 dispatchers sat next to each other, and the Zones 2 and 4 dispatchers sat next to each other. Each dispatch position had a phone panel and each phone panel had a button for the Fire Rescue communications center. It was a ‘ring down line’ meaning all you had to do was push down the button and the phone immediately rang in the Fire Rescue center and visa versa. In the Fire Rescue center the JSO ring down lines were labeled by the corresponding incoming zones.

Palm Avenue, the location Officer Bogers was shot, was in Zone 4. When the Zone 4 dispatcher announced to their co-workers that an officer had been shot, the Zone 2 dispatcher assisted the Zone 4 dispatcher by called for rescue using their Zone 2 ring down line. The calling JSO dispatcher requesting the rescue gave “Palm” as the location of the shooting without stating if it was Palm Street which is in Zone 2, or Palm Avenue, which is in Zone 4 (confirmed by a review of audio tapes). The Fire Rescue dispatcher, knowing the request came from Zone 2 assumed the incident was in Zone 2 and sent units to Palm Street.

Fire Rescue units arrived at the Zone 2 Palm Street location and could not find any emergency. When Fire Rescue communications called back JSO communications it was then that a JSO dispatcher stated it was Palm near Baptist Hospital, which was Palm Avenue in Zone 4. Fire Rescue dispatched units from Fire Station 13 who arrived two minutes later to find that the injured officer had already been transported by another officer in a police car. Fortunately, Officer Bogers survived and was able to resume his police career until he retired. (Article attached)

January 7, 1977: A school bus carrying nine children and a LP gas delivery truck crashed at the intersection of Galveston Avenue and Bowlan Street around 2 in the afternoon, when the driver of the LP truck ran a stop sign. The crash resulted in the LP truck overturning. Fortunately, there were no injuries or leak of the LP gas. (Article and pictures attached)

January 7, 1977: Information Bulletin # 1-77 announced that Fire Station 9 had been selected as the location for the department’s new Hazardous Materials Team and announced the members of the team. Captain Ron Gore was selected as the leader of the team which over time received national acclaim as the first fire service based Haz Mat Team in the United States. The names of the original crew members (according to the bulletin) are listed below.

A-shift: Lt. M.S. Chambers, Engineer D.D. Jarrett, Firefighter D.M. McCormack, Firefighter J.P. Croft, Firefighter T.J. Yost.

B-shift: Lieutenant R.E. Hunt, Engineer R.P. Morphew, Firefighter D.J. Love, Firefighter W.B. McCarthy, Firefighter B.T. Pickett.

C-shift: Captain R.G. Gore, Engineer R.L. Masculine, Firefighter T.L. Dennis, Firefighter S.E. Boudreau, Firefighter P.D. Eddins. (Information Bulletin #1-77 attached)

January 7, 1977: One of the incoming phone lines to the Fire Rescue communications center (known as Fire Control) went down and the JSO communication center was advised as a precaution in case all the Fire Rescue lines went down. The news media was also alerted and the JSO center received a handful of calls before the situation could be remedied. (Article attached)

January 7, 1977: The City of Jacksonville filed for a declaratory judgement in Circuit Court over the issue of the transfer of District Fire Chief W.E. Earle and whether the Civil Service Board has any authority over the matter. Previously the Civil Service Board had ruled that Waters could not transfer Earle from his communications center post to Fire Prevention and the firefighter’s union supported that ruling. (Article attached)

January 7, 1986: A 73-year-old woman was killed in a house fire at 11721 Fayal Drive. Public Safety Department spokesman John Keane said the fire was reported at 7:35 a.m. (Article attached)

January 7, 1986: January 7, 1986: The Oak Street Village Grocery at Oak and Osceola was burned in a fire around 3 p.m. District Fire Chief Larry Mays said a quick response and aggressive attack by firefighters kept the fire from getting out of hand. Also damaged by smoke from the fire were five apartments, a drama studio, and a laundry. (Article and picture attached)

January 7, 2000: The Florida Times-Union editorial board issued an editorial supporting a move to privatize the storeroom operation for the JFRD. A recent city audit had been critical of the operation. To this day the storeroom remains under the operation of the JFRD and has not been privatized. (Editorial attached)

January 7, 2023: JFRD firefighters assisted in the rescue of a manatee stranded on a mudbank at low tide in the St. John’s River near Metro Park. The manatee was transport to the Jacksonville Zoo which operates a manatee rehab facility and was reported to be in good condition. The Florida Wildlife Commission and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservatory Commission were also involved in the operation according to JFRD spokesperson Captain Eric Prosswimmer.

(Picture attached)