Want to know about the weather? Ask BP

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

Five years after Bob Pickering, BP as everyone in the county calls him, moved to Palm Coast with his family, a major event took a hand in his future – the fires of 1985.

Just a month before, in April of 1985, BP, Mike Van Buren (who recently retired from the Flagler County Sheriff's office), and Kirk Scollan, formed Flagler County Assist. A group of teens who, with their CB radios, wanted to help people with emergency communications.

“We were all very naïve,” BP said “There were no cell phones but many people had CB radios back then."

The group read up on disasters and how communications can be disrupted – something that would occur a month later.

“We all wanted to get into amateur radio as well, but there was no organization of any sort in Flagler at that time,” BP said. “We knew CB channel 9 was a designated emergency channel, and we knew at that point no one was dedicated to monitoring that in Flagler County.”

The three high school students took it upon themselves to start monitoring the station for the purpose of picking up distress calls. If one came in their plan was to use a landline phone to call for help.

“We had no training,” BP recalled. “One of our first calls was a wreck on I-95.”

On May 17, 1985 one of Flagler County’s worst (some will say the worst) wildfires scorched across the County.

“I had absolutely no training, I was thrown into that,” BP said.

A little technicality like “proper training” wasn’t going to stop the strong-willed FPC student.

“I was lucky to have gotten home from school and made contact with others on the CB radio and devised a plan,” he said. “There was no central coordinating in Flagler County. The ’85 wildfires were a huge wake up call for emergency responders.”

At that time each group, the county, fire and rescue and the forestry service, did not have the interagency coordination that exists today.

“When it initially broke out, from our point of view, we saw giant smoke plumes in the sky, and we were monitoring the sheriff’s radio channel on our scanner,” BP said. “We were realizing now nuts this whole situation was becoming.”

BP and Scollan set up communications at the Palm Harbor Shopping Center, while his younger brother Eric stayed home to monitor the sheriff’s radio and be a CB base station.

“He was eccentric, even as a child. He’s extremely smart and nothing ever bothered him.” MOM Irene Pickering

“People were forced out of their homes in the “W” and “R” sections,” BP said. “The only center of town was the Publix Shopping Center back then, so everyone congregated there.”

The boys tried to keep residents informed by passing along any information they learned. They directed people to the Palm Coast Community Center where an evacuation shelter had been set up.

They also started hearing from other CBers who, while dialing around found the rag tag team broadcasting. One of those CBers was Troy Harper who would later serve as director of the Emergency Operations Center. Harper was a classmate at FPC, though he and BP had not met.

Soon the fires took out the phone lines compounding problems.

His mom, Irene Pickering, wasn’t surprised when she learned what her sons were up to. She was working in Daytona Beach at the time and could not get back into the county to check on her boys.

“I didn’t know what he was up to until I found out he was alive,” Irene Pickering said. “I couldn’t get into Palm Coast and someone said the schools had burned down...they hadn't."

The boys continued their service into the night, and throughout much of the rest of the fire, helping with reports of flare ups and becoming an impromptu clearing house of CB radio calls.

“The ’85 fires was the turning point,” BP said. “That was what brought about the development of getting the Emergency Operations Center.”

It also sparked an interest in a career in emergency management for BP.

“There is no one more genuine than BP, and I am proud to say he is one of my closest friends. He is kind, honest and generous. He acts from the heart, always. He loves to sing at Harry Smith’s “Harryoke” shows at Finn’s in Flagler Beach on Tuesdays and Thursdays.” FLAGLER COUNTY PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICER AND FRIEND, Julie Murphy

“After I got that taste, I knew that’s the kind of thing I wanted to be involved with,” he said.

BP never seemed to take the typical teenage path. While his classmates had typical after school jobs, he was working at Marineland.

“I started pushing the broom…a maintenance man, at Marineland,” he said. “When I was old enough I started diving, I was still in high school.”

Diving included helping to clean the 210 portholes in the two aquariums at the old oceanarium – from the inside of the tank – in between shows.

“I was diving full time and filling in for the dolphin shows if a main guy was off,” BP said. “I started announcing in 1987.”

One of the scariest moments he recalled was climbing into the bucket and hanging over the water with a fish in each hand and one in his mouth, a crowd favorite at the time, and three dolphin would jump from the water and take the fish.

His duties expanded in 1988 to the Marineland Lab, separate from the Whitney Lab, helping with animal care and water sampling.

“I look up to him as someone to emulate as far as how to treat other people.” BROTHER Eric Pickering

“We rehabbed animals. There were different animals on display and I worked hands on with an alligator. I would grab and hang onto it so the handler could do his thing.”

While continuing his job at Marineland, BP starting volunteering at the EOC and storm spotters, and taking training when offered.

“In 1994 the communications and warning officer position opened up (at the EOC) and I applied for it,” BP said. “I didn’t think I was going to get it, but I did."

BP became the overseer of some of the communication systems during a time the state was implementing a state-wide communication system.

Today BP is the emergency management technician at the EOC. His repsonsibilities include a variety of duties from ensuring the operation and readiness of emergency management communications to overseeing the County’s StormReady program.

According to the EOC website, BP has trained at the Tropical Prediction Center and meteorological and emergency management classes. He has a technician plus class amateur license, general mobile radio service licenses, and he administers many of the county radio licenses.