Fallout From Allegations Palpable at Fire Department Life Saving Ceremony

In Brief:

🚒 Three Valparaiso firefighters honored for reviving an electrocuted victim on Bayshore Drive using an AED.
⚡ Recognition came amid tensions involving Fire Chief Lanier’s suspension over racial slur allegations.
🏆 Chief Lanier called the honor “the biggest and most special type of award” in the fire service.

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A cold, silent exchange between two men on opposite sides of a row that left a fire chief suspended without pay for a week and a third firefighter without a job took place amid a standing ovation from a small crowd at the Valparaiso Commission Meeting Monday night.

Lieutenant Marquis Johnson, as well as firefighters Josh Osmialowski and Larry Hudson stood in a row to receive their awards.

Hudson was one of two firefighters who filed a complaint with the City of Valparaiso that claimed Chief Lanier used a racial slur multiple times. Another firefighter, Lieutenant Derrick Bryan, told investigators Lanier retaliated against him by ending his probationary employment without notice and claimed it was due to what he said during the investigation.

Editor’s Note: Lanier did not respond to multiple requests for comment over the phone. I asked him for a comment on the issue at Monday’s Commission Meeting. He told me that he would not speak with me about the issue and that we were unfair in our reporting to him.

The Life-Saving Incident

The three firefighters from a crew on duty July 30 encountered a person on Bayshore Drive without a pulse who’d come into contact with electric lines via an aluminum ladder and used an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) to restart the victim’s heart.

A member of the team then, according to Fire Chief David Lanier, went with the Okaloosa County EMS team to the hospital to assist in the transport of the patient.

“This is the biggest and most special type of award that you can get in the fire service, and that is the life-saving award. Someone can walk out of a hospital that [sic] basically died and was back,” Chief Lanier said.