Longboat Key firefighters honored at annual awards ceremony

Longboat Key Fire Chief Paul Dezzi recognized the efforts of several members of his department Tuesday morning at the second annual Fire Rescue award ceremony.

Fire Rescue liaison and public information officer Tina Adams won the department’s employee of the year award.

“I was taken [aback], I was surprised and honored,” Adams said. “I literally just come in and I feel as if I do whatever I can as far as my job goes, I do the best I can, and I’m happy with that.”

Dezzi said Adams has played an integral part in the town’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. She was responsible for the organization of a weekly call with town stakeholders to answer questions related to the pandemic.

“This year is a special year, like I said about COVID,” Dezzi said. “A lot of you don’t realize the stuff that we’ve been doing behind the scenes, and Tina has been involved in some of those things.”

All Fire Rescue Department employees received COVID-19 citation bars on Tuesday morning.

Adams also serves as the public information officer for the town’s police department, helps run the town’s social media pages and helps with the department’s budgeting. She also ordered furniture for the town’s new south fire station at 6121 Gulf of Mexico Drive, which is set to open later this year.

The Fire Rescue Department also honored firefighter and paramedic Matt Taylor for serving the town since April 2006.

Dezzi said it was “bittersweet” to see Taylor leave the department to pursue other endeavors.

“Matt is one of those kind of guys, he wants to do better,” Dezzi said.

Newly promoted Assistant Chief Bryan Carr recalled one specific water rescue where Taylor continued despite breaking his kneecap. Taylor was at the front of the boat trying to use a spotlight to make sure there was nothing out in front.

“We get into deeper water, we hit a huge wave [and] Matt goes flying probably 6 [or] 7 feet in the air, comes down, and I mean, I’m one of the captains on the boat and he just smashes his knees,” Carr said. “Honestly, I thought it was over. We’re going to have to turn around, we just destroyed one of our own.”

Carr said Taylor insisted on continuing with the rescue of a family from a nearby boat that was sinking.

“That was the kind of guy Matt was,” Carr said.

Carr described what it was like for his family to see him get promoted. Carr’s son Anderson pinned him at Tuesday morning’s ceremony.

“It’s almost surreal to have my family here, to have my children and my son to be able to pin me, it’s just an awesome feeling,” Carr said.