Seminole County, Fla. (December 15, 2025) – Recently the Seminole County Fire Department (SCFD) celebrated the addition of 18 new recruits as part of Class 2025-02. The ceremony was held at CrossLife Church in Oviedo and led by Fire Chief Matt Kinley. At least half of the new graduates grew up in or currently live in Seminole County and are now fully prepared to serve their community as probationary firefighters with the Department.

Many of the recruits graduated from Seminole State in Fire Standards. SCFD requires a 9-week training before entering the field as a firefighter. The new recruits are now stationed throughout the County at a number of the 21 fire stations at SCFD. 

Fire Chief Matt Kinley provided remarks and shared advice from his recruit class at SCFD in 2001. Some things have never changed about fire: the job, and the effort you put in as a crew every day, speaks volumes about the kinship, respect, and trust you build with each other, “said the Fire chief during his keynote address. “The bond you create in a station—spending 24, sometimes 48 hours together—is lifelong. That trust allows us to fight fires, run life-saving EMS calls, and support each other in both good times and bad.”

New Probationary Firefighters include:

• Robert Barton
• Christopher Gomez
• Jeremiah Gudinez
• Mikela Konz
• Parker Sorrentino
• Jayden Floyd
• Maxxwell Foley
• Colton Graves
• Joshua Scher 
• Austin Camden
• Kevin Edman
• Victor Furquim 
• Seth Kozlowski 
• William Moxley
• Tyler O’Brien
• Chase Prather
• Jarod Raghuraj 

Marlon Vega