Two Ponce Inlet Firefighters Terminated After Investigation

Ponce Inlet, FL – A Ponce Inlet Fire Department (PIFD) lieutenant and a firefighter are no longer in the employ of the city after investigations sustained allegations against them. Lieutenant Derek George and Firefighter Kyle Oberst were officially terminated by Town Manager Jeaneen Witt this past Tuesday (August 10). Witt, who recused herself, said in the termination letters to both men that she decided to let the neutral third-party investigator’s findings stand without reweighing their credibility. One example of the findings against George is a violation of the Town’s Workplace Violence Policy, detailed with multiple citations and supported by the testimony of multiple firefighters, including his own admission that he had guns in the fire station that were visually indistinguishable from fully functioning AR-15 rifles. The termination letter states that the findings are not in error even if the only unauthorized guns he had on Town property were "ghost" or 80 percent guns. An example of the allegations against firefighter Oberst from the investigator’s files finds that he was negligent in his duties as a paramedic and that he may have contributed to the negligent death of one or more persons. This allegation is supported by the testimony of four firefighters.