You see them at festivals and at holiday parades and gatherings gliding smoothly through the crowd on their bikes dispensing first aid and offering help.They are the West Manatee Fire Rescue Bike Team with eight fully equipped bicycles and nine members, who are specially trained to ride in crowds. Typical medical emergencies they encounter are heat related problems, falls, exhaustion and basic first aid.
‘We are a work in progress,” team leader Chris O’Kelly explained. “The team was started in 2004 by Battalion Chief Rich Losek and received donations through Dr. Soler (the district’s medical director). We bought two bikes and had four members.
“Since 2007, the district has funded us for $1,000 per year. The money is spent on bikes, helmets, equipment, uniforms, maintenance and specialized medical supplies. We also take donations.”
Two to four members of the bike team can be seen at Bayfest, the DeSoto parade, Privateers’ parades, the Fourth of July fireworks, the Cortez Commercial Fishing and Folk festivals – anywhere there’s crowds and traffic. In addition, they provide mutual aid at Southeast Guild Dog events.
“The team started when there was a cardiac at Bayfest and we couldn’t get the fire truck through,” O’Kelly recalled. “It took a long time to get to the patient. We saw police officers on bikes and said, ‘We could do that,’ and Rich started getting donations.
“It’s much quicker to ride a bike to treat a patient in a crowd than get an ambulance or a fire truck. We provide the medical aid and the district’s Centaur ATV stands by to provide the transport.”
O’Kelly said team members take a 30-hour training class through the International Police Mountain Bike Association based in Indianapolis, Ind., “We learn how to ride through a crowd,” O’Kelly said. “There’s a technique when you’re carrying 30 to 40 pounds on a bike. You have to learn how to get where you’re going and be effective. There’s a lot of tricks that you don’t know until you meet someone who specializes in this.”
The team’s services are free, and members receive a specialty stipend of $600 per year. They hold monthly training drills and have to attend four drills or events.
The team is slated to receive a 26-foot trailer with 30 bicycles and equipment through the National Safe Routes to Schools program and dispensed by the Florida Department of Transportation, said member Rodney Kwiatkowski. Team members will be trained through the Florida Traffic Safety Education Program to the teach bike safety in schools and then host bike rodeos with the kids.
In addition to O’Kelly, Losek and Kwiatkowski, members include Jim Davis, Barry Brooks, Chris Shepard, Brian Gaskill, Andrew Lauricella, Mike Bugel and Ben Rigney.
