Jumpline magazine JUNE 2023 pages - Flipbook - Page 47
Dave Downey, Ret.
I was There when it Happened Continued
after I joined MDFR. It was an honor, even though it was an
accident, that I was tasked with putting this unit into service
because of the murder of Stan’s son. When the aircraft was
placed into service in July of 2001, we put a plaque in the unit
dedicating it to the memory of Bradley. Few that came after me
knew who Bradley was or why we dedicated the aircraft to him.
Why is the pool on the 2nd floor of the Training Facility?
The original design of the Fire Rescue Training Center back in
the late 90s always included a swimming pool. While a training
facility, headquarters and 10 fire stations were included in the
1994 General Obligation Bond which was approved by voters,
it seemed that the Training Center was one of the last priorities.
A few years after the tragic death of Recruit Wayne Mitchell
in 2003, there was a renewed interest in getting the training
facility built.
Around 2007, I was tasked as the Chief of Training and Safety
to work with the Facilities and Construction Division to get the
facility built. It was decided to build it on the vacant land, currently an overflow parking lot, behind headquarters. While this
would provide some savings as we already owned the land,
it did necessitate a redesign of the training facility footprint.
During the design phase, the architect brought to my attention
the fact that to have a pool at the depth we wanted (12-15’), we
would need 9 feet of concrete to hold the pool down. Being a
non-architect or contractor, just a dumb firefighter, I asked if we
could simply have the deck on the 2nd floor thus not having to
have an awkward 9-foot elevation on the back of the building.
The first thing that was built on the grounds of our now impressive training facility was the pool. It was framed and poured on
top of the ground and the building built around it. One other
fun fact: during the design we asked to have a 4 x 8 foot observation window placed in the deep end of the pool. During the
framing of the pool, prior to pouring the concrete, the contractor
asked to meet with me. He told me, with our facilities manager present, that they were unable to construct the window but
rather we could possibly have an 8 inch round porthole. They
explained that the design of the window we wanted could not
be done. I thought for a moment, wondering to myself how this
was engineered, designed and approved previously, and only
now, the day they want to pour, it can’t be done. I asked the
contractor and facilities manager to accompany me. We were
going to take a ride to the Miami Seaquarium where one of
them would have to explain to me how Shamu the whale could
be in a large tank of water with an entire wall made of glass.
We never took our field trip, and we got the window we wanted.
More on our Training Facility
It should be noted that the original design and the concepts for
how the structures are laid out and incorporated into the total
site goes to Fernando Fernandez, the master architect of the
Fire Rescue Training Center. A couple of other oddities that
are of honorable mention here.
Large Covered Area – On the original plans this was a much
smaller outdoor area designed for the CPAT. Unfortunately,
to operate a certified CPAT facility it must be in a controlled
climate location. There would be no way to control the climate
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outdoors, so we kept the thought and expanded the footprint.
The Tower and Residential Structures – The original plans
called for 2 towers of the same height, side by side. One would
be a “clean” area and the other would house our fire props.
One weekend I invited my good friend Bill Gustin to my house
to look at the plans and give me his thoughts. I did the same
with TRT Bureau OIC Jeff Strickland and Haz Mat Bureau OIC
Ron Sperry. Captain Gustin should be credited with laying
down the dirty part of the tower which gave us real hallways
to stretch lines. Together, we designed the outside to have an
open walkway with garden style apartments on the west side
and an office building appearance on the east side. Captain
Gustin also put a lot of work into the design of the residential
structure to include the “abuela” residence in the back.
During construction I would frequently walk around to see how
things looked. Look closely at the exterior bricks. As they were
laying the bricks for the tower, I realized that the outside of the
brick had a rough texture. This concerned me because from
the roof, we would be doing various high-angle evolutions and
this rough texture would not work for the personnel training or
the equipment we were using. To solve this problem, we asked
that they turn the bricks around placing the rough texture on
the interior with the smooth side facing outward. So the top 2
floors of the tower have the bricks reversed.
Who picked THAT color for a Fire Truck?
Legend (urban type) has it that our “lime green” color was decided upon by Chief Milton Bullock in the early 70s. According
to my foremost authority on MDFR history, retired Chief Charlie Perez, Chief Bullock had come across research regarding
vehicle color and visibility. He decided to have trucks painted with various color schemes and have them driven in a line
down a runway at MIA from dusk to dark. Chief Bullock was
in the control tower, and he wanted to see which vehicle was
most visible. Turned out, it was the truck painted lime green.
Through the years, we have changed the shade of the lime
green, put a white roof over the cab and even experimented
with a European florescent orange livery on Rescue 3. While
highly visible, the orange paint faded in the South Florida sun
after a short time. It faded so much that it turned pink, probably
a first, so the lime green stayed.
If I were to start a fire department, I would never have chosen any combination of color that included lime green for a fire
truck, but I think MDFR is recognized worldwide because of
our lime green paint scheme. One of the other things that we
were known for in our history were our gray uniforms. When I
got on, it was the gray pants and gray buttoned shirt with red
June 2023 | JUMPLINE Magazine
