Day 2 - 5/05/07

Saturday again dawned bright and sunny. We planned to spend this day a little further inland, beginning east of Fort Myers and circling south toward Golden Gate, east of Naples. We drove south on I-75 going first to Lehigh Acres Sta#3 where a new large new pumper-tanker is assigned. It was in the shop for a brake job. Not having shot it I don't have the details on it. We went on to Stations 1 & 2 where we found plenty of rigs to shoot at both places. LAFD has a 1998 Oshkosh CFR 1000/3000/400 that because of its off-road capabilities is used as a brush rig. Lehigh Acres still has a significant amount of scrub timberland in it's district. They also operate a variety of E-One and Pierce engines of 1250/750 size, ranging from 1984 to 2006 as well as a 2004 Pierce "Dash" 2000/600/85' platform and a 1993 Int'l/LAFD 500/600 brush unit.

Our next stop was farther south and east in the rural city of Immokalee. The Immokalee Fire District operates out of two stations with both paid and volunteer personnel. We only stopped at Sta#1 after a short get lost tour through part of the city. The GPS didn't know where we were going. Immokalee is primarily a produce growing area with migrant farmworkers living in street after street of single-wide mobile homes in various states of repair or otherwise. The very hospitable captain on duty told us they run about 4000 calls annually with about 160 structure fires a year, many caused by overloaded electrical circuits. Mobile homes are quickly consumed in a fire, usually well gone prior to arrival. Thats about 3 structure fires a week. They recently lost six in one fire. E30 is a 2000 Pierce "Saber" 1250/1000. Tanker 30 is a 1990 International/Snyder Tank 750/3000. They have to carry a lot of water with them due to lack of hydrant coverage in many areas. Also on hand was Attack 30, a 2006 Ford/Hallmark 400/270/30 quick attack rig. An older E-One rear-mount aerial was in the station but was unavailable for photos due to mechanical problems.

After a very pleasant visit we headed south to the Big Corkscrew Island Fire District in an area known as Big Corkscrew northeast of Naples. BCFD operates now out of two stations. The first station we stopped at was empty so we went on to the next one down the road, Big Corkscrew Rd. We found an engine outside and upon entering were told that it was the engine from the station we had just been too. The crew were here using the exercise room, which with the shops are the only things remaining in the station. It no longer has units or personnel assigned. We shot the engine and proceeded on down that same road to the Headquarters station where we once again found a friendly crew and many rigs. At our first occupied stop we shot Attack 12 - a 2005 Dodge/Elite 250/500 and E10 - a 2002 Freightliner/Sutphen 1250/1000. At the main station we found Tanker 10 - a 1999 Freightliner/Mid-South Tank 750/3000, E12 -a 2005 Sutphen 1250/1000, another E10 - also a 2005 Sutphen 1250/1000 and Brush 10 an AM General 250/500 of some 1980s vintage.

Next stop was the Golden Gate Fire District east of Naples. They operate a paid department out of four stations (#s70-73), the newest, #73, a new district headquarters and administration building just dedicated last week but not yet open for service. Figure that one out. Their coverage area includes million dollar homes all the way to scrub lands. That is quickly disappearing with much residential and commercial building going on. We stopped at Sta#71 for another friendly welcome and shot Truck 72 a 2003 Pierce "Dash" 2000/300/85' AP which was having pump work done, E71 - a 1999 Pierce "Dash" 1250/1000, Brush 71 - a 1996 Freightliner/Southern Coach 500/500 and Tanker 71 - a 2001 International/Pierce 750/3000. After much driving between locations today it was time to get on I-75 and head back to Venice.