MONROE COUNTY FIRE RESCUE HONORS PERSONNEL AT AWARDS AND PROMOTIONAL CEREMONY

MONROE COUNTY, FL – Monroe County Fire Rescue celebrated the accomplishments, service, and professional advancement of its firefighters and personnel during an awards and promotional ceremony held Aug. 28. The event was sponsored by IAFF Local 3909.

More than 300 firefighters, employees, retirees, family members, and Monroe County leadership attended the ceremony, the department’s first large-scale event since 2020 dedicated to recognizing awards, promotions, retirements, and other accomplishments.

The ceremony included departmental awards recognizing exceptional service and teamwork, as well as the Phoenix Award for personnel involved in successful cardiac-arrest resuscitations and the Stork Award for those who helped deliver babies outside a hospital setting.

“This was an opportunity to recognize the people behind the work our department does every day,” said Monroe County Fire Rescue Chief R.L. Colina. “Our firefighters and personnel dedicate their careers to serving this community, and it was special to bring our fire rescue family together to celebrate their accomplishments and promotions.”

Promotions included lieutenant to Brad Baird, Mike Lopez, Sergio Sanchez, Xavier Simancas, and Jake Werner; captain to Michael Bernard, Jen Brack, Josh Eitel, David Millan, and Nick Neyra; and manager of EMS & Air Medical to Jeff Lauraitis.

Pheonix Awards were presented to Roy Mendez, Arturo Aulet, Andre Castro, Mia Anderson, Michael Sirven, Megan Marlow, Kati Foster, Angus Porter, Alejandro Lucio, Jorge Machado, Alexandra Moreno, Luigi Reategui, Michael Summers, Shaun Tome, Jesse Hubman, Alfred Meneses, Josh Carmichael, Luis Guardado, Liz Komoroski, Jonathan Enriquez, Craig Martin, Cesar Lopez, Michael Perez, Jesus Hernandez Lopez, Alfredo Montes, Greg Gutierrez, Adam Batchelor, Jessica Medlin, Aaron Sparber, Brad Baird, Lee Placido, Xavier Simancas, Harold Perez, Michael Bernard, Tony Perez, Matthew O'Donnell, Austin Taylor, and David Millan.

Stork Awards were presented to Jake Werner, Michael Bernard, and Brad Morris.

Other awards included the Training Excellence Award to Brad Baird and Josh Eitel, Brother’s Keeper Award to Richard “Moose” Vandervoort, General Employee Excellence to Lisandro Gonzalez and Chris Ward, Award of Exemplary Dedication to Cara Johnson, Flight Paramedic of the Year to Matt Hill, Firefighter of the Year to Randy Gonzalez, Life Saving Award to John Guieb, and the Award of Valor to Harold Perez, along with company citation bar to stations 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13 and Battalion Chief 1.