By Jerome Burdi
Sun-Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — These fire-rescue paramedics fight blazes, and pack heat.
In Palm Beach County, SWAT medics can double as police officers. They go through the police academy, carry a Glock handgun and wear paramilitary green uniforms with ballistic vests.
It’s a special breed of firefighters who take on this role, which is not so different from being a combat medic at war.
“You’ve got to be able to do several emergency procedures,” said the retired John Hagg, a Sheriff’s Office SWAT medic for nearly two decades. “You wouldn’t want to have a new medic trying to figure out how to cut somebody’s throat to put a tube in to breathe for them.”
SWAT medic units have sprouted up around the country in recent years as police agencies realize the importance of having medics at their side. Normally, paramedics are kept at a safe distance from a shooting scene.
“One of the officers may be down and the bad guy is still shooting,” Hagg said. “We’re in the building with them” and can treat them.
At the Broward Sheriff’s Office, SWAT medics were added in 2003 and are trained in weapons use but are not licensed to carry a gun.
“The primary mission is to provide medical care, not to get involved with hands-on tactical operations,” said Broward County sheriff’s Assistant Fire-Rescue Chief Harris Bouchillon. “Their missions are separate.”
In Palm Beach County when there’s a SWAT call, the medics go to their Sheriff’s Office-issued unmarked car, which has their firearm and a 50-pound backpack of medical gear in the trunk. The medics are not permitted to carry a gun while on fire-rescue duty.
“It’s almost like two entirely different jobs,” said fire-rescue Capt. Joe Nelson said.
The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office SWAT medic program was formed in 1982 in part by Dewayne Kelley -- then a part-time deputy as well as a paramedic at JFK Medical Center.
The first day of the new unit was a bloody one when SWAT sniper Deputy Frank Genovese was shot and killed. It was too late for medics to save Genovese but another SWAT team member was treated for shrapnel wounds in the shootout that day.
“It was a horrible event, it was awful and I wish we could have had more chance for saving him,” said Kelley, who left the team in 1991 and is now a supervising U.S. probation officer in Knoxville, Tenn.
There have not been any Palm Beach County deputies killed on a SWAT call out since that day.
The quick access to care that medics provide has often proven vital, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office SWAT commander Lt. Scott Smith said.
In one dramatic episode, SWAT medics saved the life of Lewis Kramer, 34, who in 2006 barricaded himself in his townhome west of Boca Raton, called 911 threatening suicide and set himself on fire, investigators’ reports show. Kramer survived to plead guilty to arson and resisting an officer with violence.
Though the medics are armed while on SWAT duty, their main job is still caring for the wounded.
A lot of patients do a double take when a paramedic dressed like a deputy rushes over to treat them, Nelson said.
“Firemen are always the good guys and the cops are the bad guys,” he said with a laugh. “When I show up in a green SWAT uniform and tell someone I’m a paramedic, they’re a little more hesitant to open up and talk to you.”
Copyright 2009 Sun-Sentinel