Deputy fire marshal delivers message

MANATEE — Leslie Adent was shopping when two elementary school boys approached and asked a question.

Aren’t you a teacher?

I’m in the fire department, she told them.

That’s it, the boys cried.

“It made me feel so good,” says Adent, promoted recently to deputy fire marshal at Southern Manatee Fire Rescue. “They remember the message.”

The message being that October is National Fire Prevention Month, a cautionary lesson about fires Adent has been delivering to schools not just this month but for years.

“We can’t emphasize enough how dangerous fire is,” says the 54-year-old. “Even when we ask adults how long they have to get out of a burning building, many say five minutes.

“Sometimes it’s seconds.”

Fire prevention is in her blood.

Adent recalls being a child in Lake Geneva, Wis., where her dad was with the all-volunteer fire department.

“We had black fire boxes in our house, it would ring in the middle of the night and he’d take off,” she said. “I grew up that way.”

Her own kids did, too, when Adent was a single mom and volunteer firefighter with the former Oneco-Tallevast Fire Department around the corner.

She had to leave a few holiday meals on the table when the pager went off.

“I had an older daughter at home that allowed me to go,” Adent said. “One Easter I was at a structure fire and she called to ask me how to make sweet potato casserole.”

Adent’s ability to multi-task has served her well in 20 years as a firefighter — the last 13 with Southern Manatee.

Now remarried, she got her degree and certification and gradually worked her way up to engineer, fire inspector, senior fire inspector to deputy fire marshal.

“She prepared herself,” says Fire Chief Foster Gover. “Not only does she have to know her job duties, but dealing with the public, having the contacts, knowing where to go to get the job done."

Adent’s responsibilities include:

n Construction site plan reviews and onsite inspections

n Enforcing code compliance

n Fire investigations

n Supervising daily operations

n The Manatee County Juvenile Firesetter Network

The network involves counseling juveniles about fire after they’re referred by the juvenile justice system.

It coincides with Adent’s message for students this month.

“Fire affects whole families,” she said. “It’s hard to see when somebody is burned out of their home because a child was playing with fire in a bedroom and didn’t realize the fire could get away. It usually starts in a bedroom and gets out of hand, they shut the door and don’t tell anybody.

“Matches and lighters are tools, not toys.”

Visit www.southernmanateefd.org.

Vin Mannix, local columnist, can be reached at 745-7055, or write him at Bradenton Herald, P.O. Box 921, Bradenton, Fl. 34206 or e-mail him at vmannix@bradenton.com. Please include a phone number for verification.