The Fire Chiefs of North Fort Myers: A job with great responsibility

Aug 18, 2021 By CHUCK BALLARO 6 min read

North Fort Myers Fire Chief Ron Beecroft.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL PISTELLA

Bayshore Fire Chief
Doug Underwood
PHOTO BY MICHAEL PISTELLA

North Fort Myers has two fire districts, Bayshore and North Fort Myers.

While one district serves much of the area’s urban and suburban areas while the other serves mainly rural areas as well as Babcock Ranch, they have a lot in common, even if the areas they serve are somewhat different. Primary duties for each are to fight fires, make sure buildings meet safety code standards and rescue people out of cars and other dangerous situations.

The chiefs are the ones who have to make the tough decisions every day, make sure they stay within budget and they are typically the face of the district they serve.

No matter what, both chiefs say that the departments are there when you need them though, hopefully, you never will.

Chief Doug Underwood

 Chief Doug Underwood has served the Bayshore Fire & rescue for more than 20 years, including 13 as a captain before taking over for the recently retired chief Larry Nisbet in June.

Underwood came up through the ranks to the top spot, which had not happened previously at Bayshore. He started as a volunteer firefighter and worked his way up to firefighter, engineer, captain, and finally chief.

Bayshore has had the reputation of being a proving ground for young firefighters, as it is one of the few in Lee County with a volunteer program. While many go on to other districts, many stay at Bayshore, which is what Underwood did.

“We have guys who were hired not long after I was, like Capt. (Jeremy) Brunson and Capt. (Lewie) Swindon. We have guys who have been here for a considerable amount of time and some engineers who have been here 10 years or more,” Underwood said. “We’ve worked hard to give comparable salaries to retain decent firefighters.”

While Underwood is no stranger to budgets, the upcoming budget will be his first as chief. Unlike Nisbet, who inherited an untenable situation in 2008, when the housing market crashed, Underwood has seen property values return to the levels they were in 2006.

Although running a district is much more expensive than it was in 2008, Underwood still has a sizeable advantage over the challenge Nisbet faced when becoming chief.

“I’m inheriting a budget that’s increasing and I hope we can maintain that. We had four firefighters per shift before we had to pare that down to three with the housing crash,” Underwood said. “We needed a lot of grants to maintain that staffing level until we just couldn’t anymore and were down to two guys a shift at one point.”

Underwood also inherits an ISO rating of 2, which is the second-best insurance rating an area can have, despite having just one station, three full-time firefighters a shift and being as rural and spread out as they are, including having to cover the Lee County portion of Babcock Ranch.

Underwood said that if things continue as they are going, they should be able to bring back that fourth firefighter in the coming years.

Being a chief in a department with no assistant chief can be difficult, so shift captains take on roles that an assistant chief would take on.

Underwood said that having learned under the tutelage of Nisbet, whom he shadowed for weeks before taking over, he was able to hit the ground running.

“Larry has been a mentor for many years. I’ve been given the opportunity to help manage many things internally, so the transition has been easy,” Underwood said. “He’s been more a mentor on all aspects, not just the past few months, being his right-hand man for many years.

Chief Ron Beecroft

Like Chief Doug Underwood, Chief Ron Beecroft has also worked his way through the ranks. He started at North Fort Myers Fire & Rescue in 1990 before finally being named chief last year to replace David Rice.

Beecroft started with the district before attending fire school. Once he completed that, he became a paid firefighter before becoming engineer, master engineer, and was made captain (which eventually became battalion chief) for 11 years before becoming the new chief.

Beecroft said that over the years the population has changed to the point where the district runs more than twice the calls they did when he started.

“We run about 10,000 calls per year. We were around 4,000 when I started,” Beecroft said. “We also had four stations when we started and now, we’re down to three, with administration at our station on Trail Dairy Road.”

Beecroft added that there are now a lot more safety standards to protect firefighters and the equipment is much better as well.

“There are cancer programs that protect firefighters better than before. The equipment we use now is way better than when I started,” Beecroft said.  “We don’t do as many brush fires, since there are more homes now. Development has taken over much of the woods here.”

Beecroft’s staff has helped him smoothly negotiate his way through his first year (and budget) and is ready to start over again as another budget is upon them.

For Beecroft, it will be easier to raise revenue, since voters within the district passed a referendum in 2016 to raise the millage rate from 2.5 to 3.5, something Bayshore was not able to do. One mill is equal to $1 for every $1,000 of assessed taxable property valuation within the district.

“We had a lot of reserves built up and they were almost depleted before things started coming back around. The increase bailed us out and built our reserves back up,” Beecroft said. “We can proactively do some building and increase the size of the department.”

Like Bayshore, property values in North Fort Myers are back to where they were in 2006. They also face larger costs from insuring and paying firefighters to equipment needed to improve its ISO, which is at 3. Beecroft hopes the increase in values will keep up with inflation and allow them to get what’s necessary to bring the rating down.

Beecroft will have a lot to consider in the future, with Paradise Isle coming up in the next few years, which is expected to add millions to the budget, as well as the need for another station and much more equipment.

“As that builds out, we’ll probably have to build another station and end up with more equipment. We have to adapt to all the changes that are coming and stay ahead of them,” Beecroft said. “We’re already looking for a location for the station.” NFMNL

To reach CHUCK BALLARO, please email news@breezenewspapers.com