New Generation, Same Flame

Becoming Marco Island’s newest firefighter is literally a dream come true for Caleb Beatty, who is following in his father’s footsteps by joining the Marco Island Fire Department. He’s been on the job for a month.

"I'm brand new,” Beatty said, “the youngest fireman in the service here. It feels great. Definitely a lot of hard work. I always wanted to be a firefighter ever since I was a little kid. I was born and raised around the fire service on Marco. My dad was a firefighter on Marco. I was always around the firetrucks, and I was always around the fire family. And I just grew to love it. That's what kind of drove me into wanting to become a firefighter since I was a little kid. It’s a lifelong dream accomplished."

Beatty, 21, never wavered in his desire to become a firefighter.

"Right out of high school,” he said, "when I turned 18, I went to fire school. I went to EMT school. I'm currently in paramedic school. I want to continue furthering my education in fire service. I want to get my fire degree, my A.S. degree in fire science. I want to get into different classes where I can learn more about the fire service as well. That's how you move up through the ranks. I'm very passionate about the fire service, so I always want to know and learn everything I possibly can."

Beatty’s father, Dustin Beatty, is a captain for the Marco Island Fire and Rescue Department (MIFD).

“It's honestly a sense of pride,” Beatty said of becoming a second-generation Marco firefighter. "I know my dad's probably proud that I was able to get on the job at a young age and have the drive to become a firefighter just like he wanted to. It does mean a lot. It's a generational thing. It's an accomplishment. It’s a great feeling. It really is. And I’m blessed to be here. And I'm blessed to have the physical ability. What's cool about the fire service is you're constantly growing and you're constantly learning. There's always education and there's always things to learn here and it's never the same. You never get the same calls. There are so many different ways to force a door, for example. If there's a fire, and the door is locked and we need to get through, there are different techniques you can use to force the door. That's what's great about this job, there are different ways to do things and learn things.”

Fire Chief Chris Byrne has seen Beatty grow up. But he’s not the only second-generation Marco firefighter that Byrne’s watched develop.

“The battalion chief, Jeffrey Kutzke Jr. and Caleb are both second-generation firefighters,” Byrne said. “Born and raised on the island.”

“He's known me all my life,” Beatty said of Byrne. “And Jeff Kutzke is my battalion chief. I can't really tell you too much about him, to be honest. I just know he's a second-generation Marco firefighter, and I grew up around him. He's probably seen me since I was a little kid as well. His dad was a chief. I'm sure he's following in his footsteps, being on the service for a long time. That's who my captain reports to. I report to my captain."

Beatty doesn’t report to his father, however. Beatty works out of Station 50, at 1280 San Marco Road. His father works as a captain out of Station 51, at 751 Elkcam Circle, in the industrial area of the island.

“You cannot have that,” Beatty said of the prospect of him reporting to his father. “He's in a different station and he's on a different shift. We have two beautiful stations here on Marco.”

For his first year on the job, Beatty is known as a probie. A probie is the lowest-ranking member in the department. During his probationary period, Beatty receives training and extra supervision while learning the job.

"As a probie, I'm doing a lot of training,” he said. “Basically, I'm on probation for a year, just learning how to be a professional firefighter. You're hired as a professional firefighter, but you need to further your knowledge and further your techniques, your daily station duties, cleaning the trucks, doing daily duties."

Beatty said he feels welcome at Station 50.

“Everyone’s definitely very welcoming,” he said. "You know everybody's been a probie at one point. So everybody understands how it is, working and trying to acclimate and work with each other. Everybody knows what you've got to do. And they're always welcoming and want you to become a really, really good firefighter. So they're always in your court, helping you."

Beatty said there are things about firefighting that many people might find surprising.

“There's a lot of physical challenges,” said Beatty, who’s a slender 6’3". "Our natural instinct is not to go towards a fire; our natural instinct is always to run away from fire. So there's always a mental barrier that you have to go in there. Being a firefighter is a mental game. It's a physical game. You've gotta be able to withstand 400-500 degrees of heat, going into a very hot building and going in there and trying to save a life. I feel like people don't truly see that. This is a very dangerous job, climbing through a window 100’ in the air. And you’re searching a building completely blacked out and you’re not able to see your hand in front of you. It’s definitely an eye-opener. I feel like a lot of people don’t understand that.”

Beatty said physical fitness is a key component of the job.

"It's definitely a big part,” he said. “Our gear is self-contained, so you're fully bunked out in gear. All your sweat and heat are contained; that’s how the bunk gear is manufactured. It’s meant to keep the heat in and keep the outside heat out, so your internal heat always stays in. So sweat stays in your gear and it just keeps accumulating. Sometimes it gets over 100 degrees in your gear. So you need to have cardio, especially when you have all your gear on, everything that you need to fight a fire. It's definitely a very physically demanding job. You really can’t get out of shape on this job. I'm always training anyway, so I'm always acclimated. But everybody has to do their part and has to go to the gym, work out, get your heart rate up at least every shift. And you know, it helps."

There is a gym inside the fire department.

"You have a gym right in here,” he said, “so it helps out. We have a stair climber, we have a treadmill, we have weights, everything you can really think of to keep you nice and fit. I love to train. I have a knack for it. And I love to put myself in situations that I can push through and overcome physically.”

Beatty found fire school was rigorous.

“It's kind of like military,” he said. “You've gotta shave your head, be dressed in a uniform. You have different squads and it's definitely rigorous. It's not for everybody. You have to go up floors with a full hose. You have to do a bunch of stuff to even get into the school. It's a bunch of physical training. We run up to ten miles a day. We learn the ropes of becoming a firefighter as well. And then after that, we go to lecture. We have a test every single day. It’s six months long. I think I started with 70 and we graduated with like 38-39. So it’s definitely not for everybody. There were a bunch of hard times, but I just have a knack of just pushing through it and overcoming challenges."

Fighting fires is just a small part of the responsibilities of the modern firefighter’s job.

“The fire department, yeah, we have the fires,” he said. “We train for fires. But we also have a medical side. We run a lot of medical calls down here. We have a boat for when people go missing out in the ocean. People crash into pilings in the middle of the night, things like that. We're trained in search and rescue, trained in hazmat in case we have big fuel spills or gas spills. We have a lot of restaurants around here. There's plenty of gas leaks that go on around the area. We need to be trained in those different aspects of dangerous world issues. It's a great job because you're just like a universal tool. You have training in different areas of very dangerous situations."

Finally, in addition to technical skills, a firefighter has to be a people person, too.

“We have to be able to be kind to people, of course,” Beatty said. "And we have to be able to talk and figure out what's wrong. For a medical call, you figure out what's wrong with them. You have to be able to say words that make sense to the patient. We have to ask them about their medical history, allergies, and stuff like that. Even the last thing they’ve eaten. Or what makes it feel better or worse. There’s a lot of things that we do have to ask, and that's also part of the job. You deal with panicked people sometimes. We have to kind of just de-escalate the situation. A police officer usually comes with us on a call, so they help to calm down the person that is freaking out or, if it's a significant other of the patient, we can always bring them to the side.”