Disney Firefighters Say They’re Shorthanded Which is Impacting Guests
According to a recent piece in the Orlando Sentinel, Walt Disney World firefighters are feeling the impact of short-staffing and this is directly impacting guests. One example given was a recent guest who had a heart attack at Bay Lake Tower in Walt Disney World. Apparently there was only one rescue vehicle in the area and it was on another call.
Though a medic team arrived 9 minutes after dispatch, it took 13 minutes for a rescue unit (who were in another zone) to show up and 20 minutes before epinephrine was administered at which point the guest passed away.
Photo Credit: Facebook – Reedy Creek Fire and Rescue Department Emergency Medical Services
Though situations like this at a busy tourist destination are at times unavoidable, Reedy Creek Firefighters Association head Jon Shirey cites this as an example of his team being stretched thin telling the paper that perhaps if someone could’ve gotten their sooner the guest may have survived.
Shirey told the Sentinel, “Time is tissue; time, in this case, is life-saving.” He continued, “The average person has about four to six minutes to be in cardiac arrest without some of these life-saving treatments before there’s permanent brain damage or irreversible death.”
Credit: Melanie Evans via FB
So what is going on over at Walt Disney World’s fire department? According to insiders, short staffing is having an impact on how quickly firefighters are able to reach guests.
As we enter into the Christmas period, which is one of the busiest times of year at the theme parks, firefighters and paramedics are worried that they will be stretched even further. In these instances, they must rely on outside fire departments to respond to calls. This can lead to a delay in care.
Photo Credit: https://www.wftv.com/news/local/does-walt-disney-world-have-enough-firefighters-union-says-no/890433510
According to Tom Stromsnes at the Reedy Creek Professional Firefighters Union, they are currently in arbitration with the district over staffing and are arguing that they need more first responders.
However, Disney disagrees that staffing is an issue that is potentially endangering guests saying in a statement that the claims are simply not true.
This is different from the story being told by union members at Reedy Creek who are responsible for running emergency services for the resort. They say that when the parks closed in March of 2020 they were forced to reduce staffing. They made an agreement to avoid layoffs which has had an impact on staffing.
Parking at Walt Disney World
One example cited when it came to staff shortages was that historically two rescues have been assigned to the Magic Kingdom area of Walt Disney World but due to staffing issues there is now only one. This would be a factor that would impact response time.
Insiders are also arguing that staffing at Reedy Creek Fire Department has remained largely the same since 1989. This does not take into account that Animal Kingdom has since opened along with another water park (Blizzard Beach) and several new hotels. 
Sean Pierce, a lieutenant paramedic had this to say of the shortage, “Disney doesn’t build a theme park and then say, ‘Hey, we’re going to take a third of the employees from the Magic Kingdom, from Animal Kingdom and [Hollywood] Studios and we’ll supply Epcot with the employees.’ When they build a park, they open up and they hire employees,” he said. “So why isn’t the fire department doing that?”
At the moment, 26 people are responsible for responding across Disney World theme parks and hotels as well as to accidents that occur on sections of I-4 and State Road 429.
There was a time when each of the theme parks had two medics and Magic Kingdom had three. But, according to the piece in the Sentinel, all parks except for Magic Kingdom has only one medic unit in the park. This is despite the fact that there are thousands of guests each day filtering in and out of the parks.
The staffing also limits the special operations team which are expected to help in the event of evacuation from complex rides including Disney’s new Skyliner System. With 300 cabins on the Skyliner, that makes evacuation a weighty task.
This is a situation that we have spoken about before here at MickeyBlog and will continue to cover. Go here to see the Orlando Sentinel article in its entirety.
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