WMFR wins big at county awards

WMFR took home top honors at the Manatee County Fire Chiefs’ Association Awards.

BY KRISTIN SWAIN SUN STAFF WRITER | kswain@amisun.com

MANATEE COUNTY – The team at West Manatee Fire Rescue had a lot to celebrate when their staff took home three of four major awards at this year’s Manatee County Fire Chiefs’ Association Awards.

WMFR Fire Marshal Rodney Kwiatkowski presided over the ceremony on March 23, hosted at East Manatee Fire Rescue’s administrative offices. The annual ceremony honors the best in the county’s first responders.

Taking home top honors as Manatee County Fire Inspector of the Year was WMFR’s Josh Adkins. Firefighter of the Year was given to WMFR firefighter Crystal Tucciarone. Fire Officer of the Year went to East Manatee Administrative Officer Kim Luther. The top honor of the year, Chief Officer of the Year, was awarded to WMFR Deputy Chief Jay Johnson.

Several awards were handed out to the teams that participated in Hurricane Ian response. From WMFR were Chief Ben Rigney, Deputy Chief Jay Johnson, Lt. Dar- ren Vollmer, Capt. Derek Bill, Lt. Andrew Lauricella, Capt. Paul Hopkins, Capt. James Leigh, Battalion Chief Ryan Moore, Lt. Andrew Powers and firefighters William Thomas, Frank Agresta, Aaron Reese, Nathan Bergbom, Zachary Benshoff, Jerrod Apple, Clayton Lease, William Bowen, Jeffrey Phillips, Ben Dillon, Gabriel Gonzalez,

Adam Baggett and Casey Fischbach.

Those honored from Cedar Hammock

Fire Rescue for hurricane response in 2022 were Battalion Chief Doug Brett, Capt. Brad Jones and firefighters Zack Kertz, Pete Stefano and Ethan Viera.

From the City of Bradenton Fire Department were Chief Timothy Geer, Lt. Lionel

Harrison, Capt. Barry Cornelison, Lt. Jonathan Turpin, firefighter Jared Gould and Engineers Matt McCabe, Jared Manning, Lou Chiocchio and Josh Eriksen.

The hurricane response team from East Manatee Fire Rescue included Deputy Chief Paul Wren, Battalion Chief Charles Reid, Administrative Officer Kim Luther, Lt. Steven Beecher, Lt. Danny Chappell and firefighters Dillon Garback and Derek Parker.

From North River Fire Department was Assistant Chief Joe Sicking, Capt. Donald Bunch, Fleet Supervisor Mike Henry, Capt. Billy Couch, Capt. Richard Small, Capt. Andrew Clark, Engineers Justin White, Blake Hunniford, Matt Stone, Chris Carver and Joe Houlihan, and firefighters Mike Davila, Nicole Tyler, Giovanne Rivera, Charlie Childress and Cierra McDonald.

Honorees from Southern Manatee Fire Rescue were Capt. Thomas Bioski, Lt. Sean Connor, Lt. Melvin Bonds, firefighter/paramedic Justin Young and firefighters Brandon Baserva, Duane Ely, Brent Ranney, Stephen Gibson, Tim Keusch and Chris Burghdurf.

From Manatee County EMS were Charge Paramedic Sam Albon, EMT Brandon Schallenkamp, Charge Paramedic Carlos Santos and Paramedic Tabitha Parker.