Palm Beach County Fire Rescue

Combat Operations, Structure and Staffing

The department is made up of 7 battalions which contain anywhere from 3 to 9 fire stations. The battalions are numbered as follows:

• Battalion 1: 7 stations, serving the north county area (Jupiter, Lake Park, Jupiter Farms etc.)
• Battalion 2: 9 stations, serving the western county area (Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Loxahatchee, etc.),
• Battalion 3: 13 stations, serving the central county area and is divided into 2 districts:
  • District 10: 6 stations, serving Westgtate, Palm Springs, Haverhill, Cloud Lake unincorporated Palm Beach County areas such a Century Village West Palm
  • District 3: 7 stations, serving Lake Worth, Lantana, Manalapan, South Palm Beach, Lake Clarke Shores etc.
• Battalion 4: 8 stations, serving suburban Boynton Beach, Suburban Delray Beach.
• Battalion 5: 7 stations, serving suburban Boca Raton including Boca West, Loggers Run, Mission Bay.
• Battalion 7: 3 stations, serving the Glades area including Pahokee, Canal Point, Belle Glade, South Bay, US27 from Broward to Hendry County lines, John Stretch Park, several sugar mills and agricultural areas, Lake Okeechobee.
• Battalion 9 (Special Operations)- 4 stations, including PBIA and Trauma Hawk.

Special Operations

The department has two special operations apparatus. These multipurpose units function as heavy rescues, HazMats, USAR and rescue squads. Locate at stations 19 and 34, they are responsible for hazardous materials incidents, dive rescue, confined space rescue and high angle rescue.^[6] They also assist the Sheriff's Office's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team.^[7] The units also function as mobile command center on extended operations.

Airport Operations

The PBCFR is responsible for providing aircraft rescue and firefighting for the Palm Beach International Airport, one the 50 busiest airports in the United States. The station which is located near the center of the airport grounds, is home to 13 pieces of specialized fire fighting equipment.^[8]

These apparatus include:

• An air stair which allows for assistance in deplaning in an emergency.^[9]
• Five Airport crash tenders that go by the call sign Dragon (Dragon 1, Dragon 2, etc.).^[10]
• A foam unit that carries Purple-K concentrate to assist with extinguishing a fire.^[11]
• A heavy rescue vehicle that carries additional tools for a plane crash and other mass-casualty incidents.^[12]

Trauma Hawk

The Palm Beach County Fire Rescue partners with the Palm Beach County Health Care District to operate the Trauma Hawk Aero-Medical Program.^[13] The Trauma Hawk program, established in November 1990, replaced the use of Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office helicopters to medevac critically injured patients to area hospitals.^[13] At the Trauma Hawk Station, located at the south west corner of Palm Beach International Airport, the department has two Sikorsky S-76C helos.^[14] The air ambulances are identically equipped and can carry two patients each and up to four medical attendants if needed.^[14] Each helicopter is staffed with a pilot, a registered nurse (RN) and a paramedic. The nurses and paramedics are Palm Beach County Fire Rescue employees while the pilots are Health Care District employees.^[13]