Rescue Coordination: Moving Beach Lifeguards Under Emergency Services

Tripadvisor recently named Siesta Beach on the Gulf Coast of Sarasota County, Florida, the No. 1 beach in the United States and No. 4 beach in the world. With that distinction comes increased traffic and crowds, especially during spring break and the summer tourist season. Siesta Beach lifeguards bring a wide slate of skills to the lifeguard station.

Several years ago, Sarasota County’s lifeguard program transitioned from the parks and recreation department to the department of emergency services, based on their emergency medical capabilities and the continuum of care with EMS, said Sarasota County Fire Department Assistant Chief of Special Programs Tim Dorsey. Two years ago, lifeguards and their operations moved under the fire/rescue division, which is also part of the department of emergency services. In fiscal year 2024, Sarasota County's 32 lifeguards performed 93 rescues and had 603 rescue assists.

While there is not currently a shortage of lifeguards in Sarasota County, Dorsey acknowledges the growing population and its impact on response needs. “Those things are always in play at some point in time,” Dorsey said. “Currently, we have enough personnel. We have enough assets to respond to different incidents.”

Having lifeguards under emergency services rather than parks and recreation means better coordination and administrative support, Dorsey said.

“I have a lifeguard chief who reports to me and the lifeguard captains run the day-to-day operations of the lifeguard operations group,” he said. “We work together administratively on different projects and on any problems that come up.”

Dorsey noted what makes Sarasota County different from a lot of agencies that have lifeguards is the separation of beaches in Sarasota County versus a long, connected stretch of sand.

“Our beaches are all separated on barrier islands, so you can't get the Siesta Key lifeguards over to Lido Beach to help them with something because they've got to go across a pass,” he said.

Dorsey said he looks for the same qualities other first responders possess when hiring new lifeguards.

“There’s a lot that goes into getting into emergency services and wanting to dedicate a portion of your life to do that,” he said. “We’re looking for somebody interested in doing that, eager to learn and eager to make this their profession. Beach lifeguards are (mostly) a professional organization working 24/7, 365 days a week, whereas most pool or lake lifeguards may be part time or seasonal.”

While the ability to swim is the most obvious skill for a lifeguard, Dorsey said that is aided by knowing CPR and having the tools necessary to carry out a rescue.

“A rescue might be swimming out to somebody and handing them a float and towing them in or it might be putting a personal watercraft in the water and going out 200 yards offshore to pick somebody up,” he said. “It might be paddling out in a rip current on a surfboard and going to get somebody.”

Dorsey said in the last two years, Sarasota County has enhanced its new employee training.

“We do a 10-week employee training period,” he said. “We do a water rescue module, during which we have fire/rescue and lifeguard personnel take new employees to the swimming pool, go through basic swimming, basic expectations of the fire department personnel, and operations that are assigned to the fire stations and what has to go to water rescue. [Lifeguards] know that if they ever want to go work at that fire station, there are some additional requirements they have to meet to work there. Once they do that, then they go out to the beach and do some ocean training with the staff, the lifeguards, and the fire operations staff.”

While not all Sarasota County lifeguards are EMTs, quite a few are.

“We have a program within the lifeguard operations group that we will send lifeguards to EMT school and get them trained if they would like to do that,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey said, too, that “we have a lot of young men and women who come in here and start out as a lifeguard and work at lifeguard operations, and then after a couple of years of experience, they say, ‘I want to move over to fire operations and become a firefighter, an EMT, or a paramedic and work with the fire department.' We can put them to use on calls with their experience and use them into some of our other programs: our marine operation programs, water rescue programs.”

Sarasota County’s lifeguards also engage in quarterly training sessions with marine operations and fire and EMS crews to maintain readiness for joint operations.

“When an emergency happens, they’ll all know each other,” Dorsey said. “We’re trying to get them to get together on a regular basis. We have a lifeguard lieutenant that is assigned to oversee a particular beach, and there's an associated fire station that's near there, so that we facilitate those lieutenants communicating so everybody's in the loop. Everybody knows if we have high surf warnings or different rip currents going on, so they need to be ready to take care of that and whatever's involved with that.”

Since lifeguards are under the fire/rescue umbrella, they have integrated radio systems enabling them to call in an incident, which automatically initiates a fire/rescue response for assist.

“We have 37 miles of beaches on the Gulf of Mexico, but that isn't all protected by the lifeguards,” Dorsey said. “Lifeguards have certain areas that they operate in. It doesn’t mean that they leave those areas. Here on Siesta, the lifeguard-protected beach is in one place, but if we have something further down the beach, they can respond to that along with the fire/rescue assets.”

Common calls include emergency medical situations, heat exhaustion, scrapes, trips, and falls. Dorsey said the number of lifeguards assigned to each station is based off how busy the beaches are and how large the draw on the crowd is. Siesta Key is the largest beach.

Prevention is a significant part of the lifeguards’ job, watching for potential hazards and preventing incidents before they escalate, such as someone getting caught up in a rip current. Another part of the job includes being vigilant for stingrays, sharks, and alligators.

“The biggest thing is preventative measures—watching their stand areas, seeing things that are not right that they need to address, like if someone is digging a 10-foot hole,” Dorsey said, referencing the danger of small children falling into a collapsed hole dug into the sand as happened last year in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Florida when a seven-year-old girl perished after digging into the sand with her nine-year-old brother, who survived.

Digging holes that are too deep happens frequently, Dorsey said.  

“The lifeguards have to tell them they can’t do it and have to fill it in because of the collapse potential and turtle season, too, since we have a lot of turtle nests on our beaches,” he added.  

While the lifeguards do their best to engage in preventative measures, such as putting up a red flag to indicate water conditions are not favorable for swimming, there are still those people who venture out into the water anyway. “There’s not anything you can do, so you give them ample warning,” Dorsey said.

While tourist season or spring break may require extra vigilance, an issue such as underage drinking or beach patrons causing other people problems necessitates a call to law enforcement. “They don't try to intercede, because that's not where their training lies,” Dorsey said.

Dorsey said the program is a better fit in the fire department because “the lifeguards work from nine to five. After the lifeguards go home, the people at the fire station are the lifeguards. Just because lifeguards leave, people don't leave the beach. People are out on the beach recreating until dark, and things happen. That’s when the men and women at the fire stations go out and do those jobs. They are trained on all those skills and rescues and have the proper equipment and vessels to do those things.”

During peak times like spring break and Fourth of July, Sarasota County Fire Department will upstaff both lifeguards and fire/rescue personnel. “We have people on the beaches later in the evening,” Dorsey said. “It’s not the entire lifeguard staff, but we have our presence there so if something happens, they can go out and take care of it.”

Lifeguards and fire/rescue personnel have the same equipment, ensuring they are prepared for any situation. That includes a utility terrain vehicle (UTV) for beach work as well as personal rescue watercraft, surfboards, and life jackets to respond to incidents on the beach. UTVs are essential for transporting personnel and patients on wide beaches where stretcher access is difficult. The fire/rescue boat is used extensively during spring break for patrol and response.