Tampa Palms resident John Fisher wasn’t working on anything in particular when a good friend from St. Augustine called him for help.
Steve Parry, a lifeguard, had developed a concept borne from personal experience, after spending a night partying and then figuring out the next day at work that he had overdone it.
He started suffering from heat exhaustion, and as the day dragged on, he felt worse and worse. So, he wandered into a nearby restaurant, asked to sit in the cooler, and after a few minutes of being camped out on a pickle bucket, started to feel better.
“My head came out of my hands, and I was like ‘My God, what just happened, man?,’’’ Parry told Fisher.
What had happened was that Parry’s body core temperature had been rapidly brought down, and the life had returned to his body.
“I’d pay money for this,’’ Parry thought to himself.
That sparked an idea to create essentially a mobile cooler to help people suffering from heat exhaustion.
But, Parry couldn’t do it alone. Enter Fisher, who earned his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Central Florida in Orlando in 1982, and Master of Science in Electrical Engineering (MSEE) degree from the University of South Florida in 1987, and had a little free time on his hands.
“I thought it sounded like a great idea, and I liked the challenge of it,’’ said Fisher.
Fisher has now helped create three Polar Pod mobile cooling/heat illness-prevention stations, with more on the horizon.
“It was a lot of trial and error,’’ says Fisher. “The technical part of building this is not easy. It’s a tricky little recipe.”
The Polar Pod is a 20-foot-long by 8-foot-wide ice cube on wheels. Patrons enter through thermally insulated and tempered glass doors, with seating on padded benches for up to 18. The inside temperature is 50 degrees, and for those cooling down, there is a 5-gallon water jug and a 46-inch HDTV to watch.
Each Polar Pod runs on a 208VAC/10kW generator, and costs about $20 worth of diesel fuel per day to keep the temperature optimal.
“This whole thing is engineered to do one thing – bring the body’s core temperature down as quickly as possible,’’ Fisher says.
Heat exhaustion occurs after you have been exposed to high temperatures, often enhanced by dehydration. It can lead to dizziness, headaches, vomiting and fainting.
The best treatment is drinking fluids and cooling down, and it only takes a few minutes in the Polar Pod to get your body temperature back into a safe range.
Of the three Polar Pods already built, one already has been sold to a fire department. Fisher can’t say which one, except that it’s in a major city, because the fire department hasn’t officially rolled it out yet. The fire department will use the Polar Pod as a fire rehabilitation vehicle.
Perfect For Outdoor Events
Fisher also extolls the Polar Pod’s effectiveness at festivals and concerts. While showing off the pod at its storage unit on Nebraska Ave., he stops and runs to his pick-up truck to grab a copy of a newspaper.
In it, he has circled an article about two deaths and almost 60 hospitalizations at the recent Sunset Music Festival held at Raymond James Stadium, where roughly 30,000 music fans were crammed together on a scalding hot May day.
While Fisher — who has tried to get his Polar Pods into the event for two years — notes that while the deaths could be the result of drug use, he says festivals where large crowds gather in Florida’s stifling climate often lead to heat exhaustion and tents and misting fans alone lose their effectiveness.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was part of the reason,’’ he says.
Some promoters have rented the Polar Pod for their events, paying $650-$750 for a full day. Fisher said he has set up Polar Pods at events like the Big Guava Music Festival at the Florida State Fairgrounds last year, as well as at the 97X (WSUN-FM) Backyard BBQ at Vinoy Park last month.
Fisher says the Polar Pod can also can be a lot of fun. He encourages revelers, most of whom are just trying to catch a little cold air, to keep the party going once they enter. “We’ll even put some Jimmy Buffet on the TV,’’ Fisher chuckles.
Most recently, the Polar Pods were used at the Country 500 Music Fest in Daytona Beach, where promoters charged $10 for a wristband for unlimited use of the Polar Pod. Fisher says the lines stayed long all day.
“That was a huuuuge event,’’ Fisher said. “We had both of the Polar Pods there and the lines were nonstop.”
Fisher, who has taught electrical engineering classes at USF, says he has met with the USF College of Public Health and the USF College of Medicine for advice on how to effectively treat heat exhaustion through quickly lowering the core body temperature. He also set up a pod at USF football practices last spring, squeezing the team’s entire offensive line inside to test its effectiveness.
“Generally, on really hot days, people are grateful that we are there,’’ Fisher says.
Fisher, who also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from USF in 2000, adds that he and Parry are still developing a business plan for their Polar Pods. They would like to see more fire departments get interested, and they continue to see a market for events like marathons, triathlons, festivals and concerts.
“We see people dragging when they walk inside, and just come alive in the Polar Pod,’’ Fisher says. “You just don’t get it until you step inside. And, when people do, they’ll tell us, ‘Oh my God, you guys are geniuses.’”
For more information about Polar Pods, visit ThePolarPod.com, or call 995-1350 or (904) 962-1793. Or, email info@thepolarpod.com.
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