Osceola County Fire Rescue & EMS conducted a promotion ceremony on February 28 for 14 members of the department, including 6 new lieutenants and 8 new engineers.

Engineers Nicholas Bennett, Dylan Cooper, Brendan Davidson, Joshua Dubacher, Sebastian Moncaleano, and Kyle O’Mara received promotions to the rank of Lieutenant; firefighters Danny Clark, Joseph Cole, Philip Fortneyy, Jonathan Gagliano, Joshua Gentile, Nicholas Jones, Richard Segura, and Matthew Spahn were promoted to Engineer. 

The ceremony, held at the Osceola County Commission Chambers in Kissimmee, was a “pinning” – a long-standing tradition in the fire service, where friends and family of the newly promoted are invited to pin the badge and insignia of their new rank to their uniform. The ceremony follows the official administrative promotions for these personnel, which took effect in December.

“The pinning ceremony is such a special moment for every firefighter,” said Fire Chief Larry Collier. “It can be easy with the pace of the job to just assume your new role and keep on going. Taking time to do this gives us the opportunity as a department to really recognize these milestones in our firefighters’ careers, and it gives them a moment to take it in and appreciate it with their loved ones.”

Eligibility for promotion with OSCFR is based on a number of requirements, including years of service, completion of required training, professional certification, and testing-based evaluation.