{"id":34092,"date":"2023-07-28T12:44:29","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T16:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=34092"},"modified":"2023-07-28T13:32:48","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T17:32:48","slug":"polk-county-fire-rescue-celebrates-50th-anniversary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/07\/28\/polk-county-fire-rescue-celebrates-50th-anniversary\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Fire Rescue Celebrates 50th\u00a0Anniversary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

 <\/strong>Polk County Fire Rescue (PCFR) is celebrating its 50th<\/sup> anniversary in serving the residents of Polk County. PCFR began providing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in 1973 under the tutelage of EMS Chief Bill Casey and Fire Services in 1975 under Fire Chief Robert Polk.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

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Following EMS Chief Casey\u2019s term, four others held the distinction of being PCFR\u2019s EMS chief before merging with the Fire Department in 2011 and rebranding as Polk County Fire Rescue. After Fire Chief Polk\u2019s tenure, eight others have served in the top position, with its current leader being Fire Chief Hezedean Smith, D.M.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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PCFR has grown since its humble beginnings. It is now one of the nation\u2019s largest departments, with 45 stations and a workforce of more than 700 people. In 2022, the EMS-based fire department responded more than 122,000 calls for service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is my honor to lead the Polk County Fire Rescue members during such an important time in this department\u2019s history,\u201d said Fire Chief Hezedean Smith. \u201cOver the years, this department has made significant strides in serving Polk County and this is a testament to our unwavering commitment and diligence. We take pride in the progress we’ve made and the achievements we’ve garnered. We pledge to strive relentlessly for even greater accomplishments as we look ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cAs I reflect on the rich history of the Polk County Fire Rescue, it is humbling to see where it began to where it is now as a full-service department. Unequivocally, our Fire Rescue\/EMS personnel are simply the best with the responsibility of providing innovating and cutting-edge emergency medicine to our residents. As a result, daily they are saving lives, enhancing the quality of life, and making Polk County a better place to live, play and raise a family,\u201d said Deputy County Manager Joe Halman, Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PCFR is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Service (CAAS), which defines the gold standard for the medical transportation industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PCFR members will take time to reflect over the coming days about not only their personal contributions to the department but that of their past, present and future coworkers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 Polk County Fire Rescue (PCFR) is celebrating its 50th anniversary in serving the residents of Polk County. PCFR began providing Emergency Medical Services (EMS) in 1973 under the tutelage of EMS… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34093,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[5536],"class_list":["post-34092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-polk-county-fire-rescue-celebrates-50th-anniversary"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34092"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34092\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}