On April 11th, Firefighter/EMT/Graduate Paramedic Sam Collins was inducted into the National Technical Honor Society. Firefighter/EMT/Graduate Paramedic Sam Collins was nominated by the Lead Instructor of the Paramedic program for having and maintaining a high GPA...

On March 14th, Captain Robert Thayer, FF/EMT David Wernet and FF/EMT Sam Collins graduated from Suncoast Technical College after completing the Paramedic Class. They completed over 1100 hours of classroom training, clinical rotation at Sarasota Memorial Hospital...

On March 20, 2019, SMFR crews participated with the Manatee County Emergency Management and 20 other public safety agencies in the 2019 First In Exercise at the Florida Railroad Museum. SMFR crews along with the Parrish Fire Rescue, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue,...

Southern Manatee is currently training on the old Sarasota Bradenton Airport tower. Crews are advancing lines to upper floors and simulating recuing trapped victims. Crews also are completing self preservation drills by breaching walls if trapped in the fire floor....

On March 14th, Captain Robert Thayer, FF/EMT David Wernet and FF/EMT Sam Collins graduated from Suncoast Technical College after completing the Paramedic Class. They completed over 1100 hours of classroom training, clinical rotation at Sarasota Memorial Hospital...

On February 8, 2019, Captain Bobby Thayer and Lieutenant Derek Foss completed the 2nd of 5 CPR & AED classes for the Peridia Golf and Country Club. Peridia recently purchased two Automatic External Defibrillators that will be located in their clubhouse and Pro shop.

On February 9, 2019, at 6:54 pm the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue district responded to a request from the North River Fire Department to respond to assist in identification of a container that was located in the 400 block of Horseshoe Rd in Palmetto, Florida. The Hazmat Team identified the object and its contents as an explosive compound.

On January 17, 2019, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District Fire Commissioners recognized various local businesses that were major contributors to our 2nd Annual 5K Walk/Run event. Firefighter/EMT/Fitness Coordinator Christi Hollins provided the Fire Commissioners with information about each business and what they did in making our 2nd Annual 5K event a huge success once again. Appreciation plaques were given to New Balance, BJ’s Wholesale, Learning Express and Orange Theory Fitness.

On December 11th at 0900 hours at the Manatee County Public Safety Building during the Manatee County monthly awards ceremony they provided Phoenix Award Recognitions to both Southern Manatee Fire Rescue Personnel as well as Manatee County Paramedics for saving the life of a cardiac arrest victim. However in addition to being recognized for saving the life of this patient, they actually were “Thanked” personally by the patient and his family.

On December 1 and December 2, 2018, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District held their 2nd annual 5K Walk/Run event. This year our event staging area was B.J.’s parking lot in the rear and our course took us from B.J.’s down Cooper Creek Blvd. to Honore Avenue and then north on Honore Avenue to Station 5 and then back to B.J.’s parking lot.

On Saturday, December 1, 2018 at 1700 hours, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District held their annual Awards Ceremony/Banquet. This year’s event was held at the Bradenton Moose Lodge #1223, 310 44th Avenue East, Bradenton. The Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District Auxiliary did an outstanding job with the planning, menu and set up of this year’s awards banquet.

On November 6th at 0900 hours at the Manatee County Public Safety Building during the Manatee County monthly awards ceremony they provided Phoenix Award Recognitions to both Southern Manatee Fire Rescue Personnel as well as Manatee County Paramedics for saving the life of a cardiac arrest victim. However in addition to being recognized for saving the life of this patient, they actually were “Thanked” personally by the patient and his family.

On November 19th and 20th, 2018, Southern Manatee Fire Rescue assisted Sarasota County Fire Department in their “Hands-only CPR Event” to high students at Booker High School. Over this two day period over 200 high school students were taught on how to recognize an emergency, calling 9-1-1 and then immediately beginning fast high quality compressions and doing this until Fire-Rescue arrives on scene or other bystanders show up and can assist in “Hands-only CPR”.

On October 22, 2018 Firefighters from Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District, North River Fire Rescue District, a General Contractor and a sales person from Municipal Fire Equipment Company joined forces once again to help repair and clear debris from the homes of Firefighters that suffered damage from Hurricane Michael.

To kick off this year’s Fire Prevention Week, the Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District hosted an Open House on Saturday, September 29, 2018 at Fire Station #3 located at 7611 Prospect Road. Our Open House started at 10:00 a.m. and ended at 2:00 p.m. and hosted a series of events in support of this year’s Fire Prevention Week campaign theme, “Look.Listen.Learn.”

On August 29th, 2018 Southern Manatee Fire Rescue District hosted a seminar that was put on by the Florida Firefighters Safety and Health Collaborative, University of Miami Health System, Pierce Fire Apparatus and Ten 8 that pertained to Cancer in the Fire Service, awareness and prevention and how to properly decontaminate personnel after a fire or hazardous incident.