TAMPA, Fla. — According to the latest census, about 26% of the Tampa’s population is Hispanic, and that number continues to grow.

What You Need To Know

  • Tampa Fire Rescue has 21% Hispanic personnel
  • Fire Chief Barbara Tripp says it’s her goal to hire employees that help reflect the community
  • Tripp said as of now, they have enough bilingual staff that it doesn’t impact response times

Tampa Fire Rescue says it’s important for its firefighters to reflect the population they serve.

“A lot of times people are in emergency situations, and they feel uncomfortable. You look for that trust and if I have someone that looks like me and speaks like me, I can trust that person a little bit more to assist me with my emergency,” Tampa Fire Chief Barbara Tripp said about the need to hire more Hispanics.

According to Tampa Fire Rescue, 21% of its personnel are Hispanic. One of those firefighters is Eliezer Perez-Nieves. Once a call comes in, it’s go time for Eliezer.

It’s a job that requires you to be quick on your feet. “Every day I come to work, I don’t feel like it’s work. I feel happy and feel excited,” he said.

But he says it wasn’t easy to get to where he’s at. Eliezer moved to the area from Puerto Rico at 17-years-old.

Deciding to pursue this career came with several challenges.

“It was very difficult to learn English while also studying to become a firefighter, because I had to learn all of this firefighter terminology and then translate it so that I could understand,” he explained.

Although it meant long study hours, he said it was worth it to join the roughly 16% of Hispanic firefighters nationwide.

“I think it’s very important to have someone like me that can understand them, because we face a lot of hard and stressful situations. And I want to be that person who can understand and support them during their medical need,” said Eliezer.

Research shows the language barrier and fear of police are some of the main reasons why Hispanics don’t call 911 in an emergency.

Tampa Fire rescue said it’s why they ask questions even before they arrive, and make sure to equip their stations with people who can speak Spanish.

“The captain gives me the questions and then I ask the patient and I explain what treatment will be given to that patient,” Eliezer said.

He said it’s a learning process, “continuing to train and also keeping up to date with all the protocols.”

For Eliezer, saving lives was a calling. Now he’s hoping to be that helping hand for his community, by answering one call at a time.

Tampa Fire Rescue said its goal is to hire at least 30% minorities. However, they say they do have enough bi-lingual staff as of now, that it doesn’t impact the amount of time it takes to answer a call for help.