KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Two Osceola County firefighters were fired last week after surveillance video shows them fighting outside their rescue truck while a child was being transported from a hotel.
On Oct. 19, 2019, a woman called 911 and said her child was having trouble breathing.
Station 42 from Kissimmee took the call and arrived about nine minutes later.
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The mother and child were loaded into the rescue vehicle when firefighters Raymond Powell and Jaison Monanski got into a scuffle.
No punches were thrown but the two tangled in a brawl outside their vehicle while the patient waited for transport.
Watch the fight here:
According to a report, the fight ended when the firefighters realized that Toni Anderson, who worked the night shift at the hotel, was watching them.
Anderson called Osceola County Fire to complain and said the firefighters’ behavior was “blatantly unprofessional.”
Her complaint led to an investigation.
Monanski told investigators that it started back at the fire station with what he described as horseplay between him and Powell that got out of hand.
Monanski said that when the pair got to the hotel, it was still going on after working 44 hours of a 48-hour shift; he said he was tired and had had enough.
In a statement, writing that he didn’t think either man was trying to hurt the other, Monanski said: “I think we were just both frustrated that it was four in the morning and we had been up so long, and things just escalated.”
Powell also acknowledged that they went too far.
Osceola County’s fire chief didn’t brush it off as fire house shenanigans. He fired them both, and the lieutenant at the scene that night was demoted to engineer.
The lieutenant said he didn’t see the fight, but he did have a talk with both Powell and Monanski and settled the dispute.
County officials said the incident required more documentation and reporting because of the workplace violence policy.
Exclusive video tonight at 6 of two fire fighters in a scuffle outside a hotel while helping this mother and child . #WFTV pic.twitter.com/WvUplUsDrs
— Shannon Butler (@SButlerWFTV) February 6, 2020
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