Santa needed a new ride for the city’s annual holiday parade on Thursday night after city firefighters refused to drive him around on a city fire truck because of safety and liability concerns.
The firefighters union, which is at impasse in its contract negotiations with the city, said standard operating procedures require all passengers to be seated and restrained by a seat belt when riding on a fire apparatus.
"It places all liability on the driver-engineer and the person that supervises the driver," said Rich Sandell, president of the Pompano Beach Professional Firefighters union. He denied that the refusal had anything to do with the negotiations.
Santa’s new lift may be a little niftier. The Broward Sheriff’s Office came to the rescue, agreeing to drive Santa in its SWAT truck in the 6:30 p.m. parade along Atlantic Boulevard. He used the hatch at the top of the truck so he could be seen by everyone along the parade route.
"It’s a little bit different this year, adding a little more excitement," Mayor Lamar Fisher said.
"We heard that Santa needed a lift and we were happy to help out," BSO spokesman Jim Leljedal said. "There is no safer way to travel than with the BSO SWAT team — probably safer than that flying sleigh."
Parade officials first went to Broward Sheriff Fire-Rescue to seek a new ride for Santa, but the union there also backed out after being contacted by Pompano firefighters, city officials said.
Pompano Fire Chief Harry Small, who has been on the force for 33 years, said "Santa’s pretty much always been on the fire department trucks" at the parade. Not until this year did Santa’s safety become such an issue that he couldn’t ride atop the truck.
Sandell had sought modifications to the rules to reduce liability, but Small said he didn’t see any reason for that.
"We had, in my opinion, a perfectly safe situation," said Small, whose firefighters build the platform Santa usually uses when riding atop a fire truck. "We didn’t think that Santa Claus was at any time at any risk."
