Labor Day 2013
Labor Day is a yearly tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our Country. Many of you were fortunate enough to enjoy your time today with friends and family.
Today, our Emergency Responders were on-duty and ready to respond to the needs of the community and they had their hands full. The day was full of tragic and unfortunate situations that worked and challenged our Emergency Responders harder than ever.
Early this morning, three St. Petersburg Police Officers were forced to use their firearms which fatally wounded a suspect as he challenged them with a firearm of his own. In the early hours of the morning, St. Pete Fire Rescue responded to the Skyway bridge to assist an individual who was possibly threatening to leap from the Skyway Bridge.
Two bicyclist are also fighting for their lives after apparently being injured in a hit and run crash on the Memorial Causeway in Clearwater. Clearwater Police have been working leads all day in an effort to locate the driver of the vehicle who fled the scene.
Early this afternoon, Emergency Responders from Seminole Fire Rescue and the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office assisted a 15-year-old who has life threating injuries following a watercraft accident at Lake Seminole Park while being towed on a tube.
At the same time, Clearwater Fire & Rescue was trying to locate a 27-year-old male who appears to have drowned in the intracostal waterway just south of the Sand Key Bridge. The Fire Department Dive Unit spent all afternoon searching with boats utilizing special sonar technology and with scuba divers in the water. The Sheriff’s Office utilized their vessels and the Eagle to search by water and by air. Despite their efforts, they were not able to locate the victim. The search and recovery will continue in the morning.
Units from the Pinellas County Special Fire & Rescue are currently on-scene atop the Indian Rocks Bridge with a single vehicle motorcycle crash involving a fatality. The Sheriff’s Office MAIT Team will be out there for hours conducting a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash.
Despite being Labor Day, the work continues as these Emergency Personnel are always committed to serve and protect both life and property.
Let this serve as my yearly tribute to all workers who contribute to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our Country and keeping an eye on Tampa Bay (IONTB).