SANIBEL, Fla. — The Sanibel Community House was filled with stories, gratitude, and plans for the future on Wednesday night as people gathered to honor 50 years of emergency services on the island.
Watch as Sanibel Community Correspondent Anvar Ruziev takes you to the celebration:
The event brought together former police officers, firefighters, and EMS personnel who served the community in its earliest days. Among them was Raymond Rhodes, Sanibel’s first police patrolman, who reflected on the evolution of law enforcement since his time on the force.
“I think Sanibel has always been a safe place to live,” Rhodes said. “DNA, the forensic sciences have improved, photography has improved. To have the cameras they have now—to watch certain places—that just gives police officers a thousand eyes out there.”
Even with the technological progress, some challenges remain the same. One of them is the limited access to the island. John Bates, the first paid fire chief on Captiva, pointed out that Sanibel still has just one road on and off the island—something that continues to complicate emergency response and evacuation plans.
“That’s been one of the negatives about the island—the single road,” Bates said. “If something happens to that road, it really upsets everything out here.”
With dry season underway and large amounts of debris still left behind from past hurricanes, fire safety is a growing concern. Sanibel Fire Chief Kevin Barbot says that conditions remain manageable—for now.
“There’s a lot of dead vegetation from the storms, but as of right now, we’re okay,” Barbot said. “Things aren’t going to burn as fast as we think they are. And we understand the anxiety—we understand everything that happened in California. We don’t have that topography or those water issues.”
The Sanibel Fire District recently added a second brush truck for the first time in the island’s history. Fire Station 172, located off Sanibel Captiva Road, is expected to be completed by August. Meanwhile, the main fire station on Tarpon Bay Road is set for demolition this fall, with a two-year rebuild planned.
As for the police department, a city spokesperson says Sanibel is still working to secure funding for a proposed new police station.
