Fire Station 35 on 'alert' after threat

Jacksonville Sheriff's Office investigating threat against firefighters

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man called 911 Tuesday night making a threat on an Oceanway fire station, prompting an alert to Jacksonville Fire Rescue and an investigation by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

Randy Wyse, president of the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters, said Station 35, on North Main Street just north of New Berlin Road, was alerted around 8 p.m. after a threat was made to the firefighters there.

Just after 8 p.m., a message was sent to Station 35, on North Main Street just north of New Berlin Road, saying, "A male called JSO stating that 'your Oceanway stations never know when I am going to strike!'"

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office urged firefighters to "take all necessary safety and precautionary measures," and assigned patrol units to the area overnight. One was sitting outside the station early Wednesday and was outside the fire station on-and-off throughout the day. JSO officers are also accompanying firefighters on more calls and going in to clear scenes before firefighters go in.

"As a fireman, you've always been the good guys, the guys everyone wanted to see," said Ken Keene, engine captain at Station 34 on the Northside. "And now to hear somebody's crazy enough to want to hurt us, it really makes you wonder about the state of people nowadays."

While JSO redacted the specific nature of the threat from the incident report, "The call is of the nature to place the JFRD in fear for their safety."

Wyse said the fire station has procedures for this type of incident. The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office was asked to investigate the threat and the fire station closed its bay doors for safety.

Wyse said the same procedures were used after the Dec. 23 incident where firefighters were targeted in a drive-by shooting at Station 28, located on Hogan Road near Southside Boulevard.

One of the firefighters was grazed by debris created by one of the bullets and was treated before completing his shift.

Keene said firefighters can't help it, they're on edge.

"There is no defense for somebody who's lying in the bushes who wants to shoot you," Keene said. "So you're going to a lot of calls -- any call nowadays, medical calls, fire calls -- and who knows what kind of person is on the other end of that phone call. So you're at the mercy of those people."

Due to that shooting, the Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department made several changes to their protocols. Division Chief of Rescue Ivan Mote told News4Jax, in a December interview, that trucks and other equipment will now be kept indoors at city fire stations when firefighters are not responding to calls.

Firefighters were also told to wait for police to arrive at any violent crime scene considered unsafe for fire or rescue crews.

News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said it's unfortunate those new measures are needed because it could hurt city safety resources.

"It takes away officers off the street, they could be handling other calls for service. Now they have to stop that and escort rescue in," Smith said. "Sometimes police officers are used to being threatened or people maybe wanting to come at them, but this is something that is completely new to firefighters."

Wyse said that the jobs of the firefighters were not disrupted by Tuesday's threat.

"Even under these threats that the firefighters have been getting lately, they're still going out protecting citizens and performing their job accurately," said Wyse.

Keene said he and other firefighters would like to be able to wear body armor on some calls and go through more training on how to deal with this type of situation.

"The fire station is our home for a third of our lives and for it not to be a safe place is scary," Keene said. "It's scary for our families, too."