Jacksonville Ladder Truck Skips Duty Zone for Pilates Class, Crews Counseled

A Jacksonville Fire and Rescue Department ladder truck spent about four hours away from its assigned coverage zone this year so its crew could attend a Pilates class in Jacksonville Beach, traveling 21 miles outside its territory before returning to duty. The department has since confirmed that some of the firefighters involved broke internal rules governing when crews can leave their district, and that both firefighters and a fire chief were counseled over the excursion.

The truck in question is Ladder 4, based out of Fire Station 4 in LaVilla, which also serves as home base for JFRD's Special Operations Team and Urban Search and Rescue unit, according to Action News Jax. The outing came to light after reporter Ben Becker began asking JFRD questions about the trip, and the department acknowledged that some personnel violated its policies by using the ladder truck to travel more than 20 miles out of area while on duty, as detailed in the original Action News Jax report. Firefighters reportedly spent about 30 minutes of that stretch actually traveling outside their coverage territory.

Notably, there was already a Pilates studio location in San Marco that sits within Ladder 4's own assigned area, according to the station's reporting. The instructor leading the class the crew attended in Jacksonville Beach is herself a JFRD engineer, the outlet reported. Video showing the firefighters at the out-of-district studio was taken down after the outlet began its inquiries.

Neighboring Crews Covered the Gap

JFRD said neighboring stations maintained coverage for Station 4's district while Ladder 4 and its crew were out of the area, according to the same reporting. Still, a JFRD spokesperson said the activity falls short of the standard the community expects from the department, and officials said removing apparatus and personnel from their assigned territory without proper approval is taken seriously.

The department has clear policies governing training and community-engagement activities, and it said the counseling issued to the crew and to the fire chief who authorized the trip is meant to ensure the proper approval process is followed going forward. Jacksonville Beach resident KJ Lampkin criticized using taxpayer dollars to attend a Pilates class, per the same account. Eileen Flynn, another resident quoted in the reporting, said she simply expects firefighters to be at the station or available when called.

A Station With a Recent Disciplinary History

This isn't the first time Station 4 has drawn scrutiny in 2026. Four firefighters assigned there were arrested after a paintball prank war that saw them fire paintballs at a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office patrol car, civilian vehicles, and traffic signs. Misdemeanor criminal mischief charges against three of the four were later dropped after they completed pre-trial diversion programs, though the firefighters were demoted and reassigned away from the station's Special Operations Team with pay reductions, as reported by First Coast News.

The stakes of pulling a ladder truck out of position are higher than they might first appear. JFRD operates only 15 ladder trucks alongside 58 fire engines, 5 squads, and 17 water tankers to cover its entire 840-square-mile service footprint, per official department operational records. The department serves roughly 1 million residents with approximately 1,900 personnel, according to MyJFRD statistics, and a new 100-foot aerial ladder truck like Ladder 4 typically costs between $1.2 million and $1.8 million, with delivery wait times stretching up to five years due to manufacturing backlogs, according to figures published by FirefighterNow.

Budget and Oversight Backdrop

The incident lands amid growing public spending on the department. Mayor Donna Deegan's proposed city budget includes $396.4 million for JFRD, a 2.3% increase over the prior fiscal year driven largely by firefighter salary and benefit increases, Jacksonville Today reported in June. Jacksonville City Council reviewed a combined $1.1 billion public safety budget for JFRD and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office in August, an allocation representing more than half of the city's total $2 billion operating budget, according to WOKV.

JFRD's Operations Division requires all field members to hold at minimum Florida Firefighter II certification and an EMT license, with more than 600 personnel certified as paramedics, per department operating standards. Fire Chief Percy Golden II, whom Mayor Deegan appointed as part of a broader leadership overhaul, oversees the department's operational approval procedures, a structure Hoodline detailed in its coverage of the 2025 JFRD leadership shake-up. Whether the counseling issued in this case satisfies broader city ethics standards for use of taxpayer-funded equipment remains an open question that JFRD has not fully addressed.