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PANAMA CITY BEACH
FIRE RESCUE DEPARTMENT
By Lauren Williams
There
T
isn’t much that the Panama
City Beach Fire Rescue
Department can’t do. When
it comes to public safety,
these are the guys you want
to be serving in your community.
Chief John Daly and his
crew do an outstanding job
of going above and beyond with their courageous
performances. With our Beach’s
miles of shoreline, high-rise condominiums
and large influx of visitors navigating their
way around Panama City Beach, it takes a
talented and dedicated team to make sure
Panama City Beach can go to bed soundly
at night. Keeping our great city safe isn’t
the only contribution given by the PCB Fire
Rescue Department; they give back in a
much, much bigger way!
It was the year 1970 when “The City of
Panama City Beach” was formally founded.
The combination of the cities of Edgewater,
Panama City Beach, Long Beach and
West Panama City Beach would be the
official make up of our community. Once
“The City” was established, the merger of
the two area fire departments would constitute
what we now know as the Panama City
Beach Fire Department. What was then a
complete volunteer-driven department that
operated off of a telephone system and fire
alarm siren, is now a state-of-art operation
boasting the best Basic Life Support program
and most trained career Firefighter/
EMT and Firefighter/Paramedic in Bay
County. With those new, major implementations,
the motto “Dedicated to Customer
Service” now runs through the PCBFR
Department’s veins. They wanted to give
the people of Panama City Beach a fire department
that gave more to their community
than just putting out fires—they wanted to
give them hope.
Fighting more than just the fires, the Panama
City Beach Fire Rescue Departments
also provides:
• Advanced Life Support
• Vehicle Extraction
• Haz-Mat Response
• Water/Surf Rescue
• High Angle Rope Rescue
• Confined Space Rescue
• Fire Prevention/ Safety Classes
• CPR/First Aid courses
• Fire Inspections
• Child car seat safety inspections
• Station/Vehicle tours
• Blood pressure checks
Going above their call of duty is obviously
what they do, and serving their “customers”
is what they do best.
As it goes for most people in our nation,
September 11, 2001, will be a date that
forever lives in our minds. As it goes for
most firefighters, it will be a date that forever
lives in their hearts. Almost everyone
can remember the exact time and place
they were when they heard the news of that
tragic first plane crash into WTC Tower I.
“I remember being at home and watching
the television,” Lt. Terry Parris recalls, “I
sat there, like most Americans, stunned to
what I was seeing. I remember the emotions
that went through my body when the
towers collapsed and I knew that innocent
people died.” It was this realization that
prompted Lt. Parris to propose the idea of
a stair climb. It was this idea that materialized
into what is now called the 9-11 Memorial
Stair Climb.
If you were to take someone in the fire service
and strip them of their helmet, uniform,
gloves and badge—the brotherhood would
still remain. “The fire service is a true brotherhood,”
according to event coordinator Lt.
Parris. “The firefighters I work with at PCB-
FR are my brothers. When FDNY lost 343
firefighters, I lost 343 of my brothers. Ask
any firefighter that has been on the job for
a while and they will tell you the same.” It
is with that reaction and passion that has the
PCBFR Department demonstrated one way
they show their respect and pay tribute to
those who have fallen in the line of duty.
This year’s 9-11 Memorial Stair Climb will
take place on Saturday, September 8, 2012,
50 THE CIRCUIT September/October 2012