Anticipating traffic chaos due to the Northlake Boulevard closing the first week of August, Palm Beach County Fire Rescue will supply the region with more firefighters, fire trucks, ambulances, paramedics and blood bags as one of the area’s only links to the rest of Palm Beach County shuts down.
Northlake Boulevard at Beeline Highway will close for freight rail company CSX to upgrade its train tracks at that crossing. The nearly 50,000 residents of Westlake, The Acreage, Loxahatchee Groves, the Avenir neighborhood of Palm Beach Gardens and the Ibis Golf & Country Club neighborhood of West Palm Beach have been worried about how emergency services will reach them during the closure.
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue announced its plans on July 30. Here is what the agency said it will do in the area.
- Equip Fire Rescue captains with two additional units of blood and one unit of plasma.
- Station an additional ambulance to respond to emergencies during “peak times.”
- Assign an additional firefighter on each fire truck serving the area in and around The Acreage, Loxahatchee Groves and Westlake, so they will have four Fire Rescue staff onboard.
- Equip Fire Rescue medics and nurses on Trauma Hawk, the medical helicopter operated by the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, with an additional blood bag.
- Staff the 911 dispatch center with an additional Fire Rescue officer during peak hours.
- Move an additional high water truck, for rescuing potential flood victims, to the area.
- Station an additional fire truck in the area
- Station an additional Fire Rescue mechanic in the area to fix fire trucks, ambulances and other emergency vehicles.
While Northlake Boulevard will shut down all its lanes to most drivers, a bridge connecting the two parts of the road across Beeline Highway will be available for fire trucks, ambulances and police vehicles only, county officials have said…