The West Manatee Fire Rescue District and its staff continue to rack up awards.
WMFR announced via an Oct. 27 news release that Fire Marshal Rodney Kwiatkowski was named the Florida Fire Marshals and Inspectors Association’s 2025 Florida Fire Marshal of the Year.
“The award celebrates Kwiatkowski’s exceptional leadership, innovation, and commitment to advancing fire and life safety both locally and statewide,” the release stated.
The district includes Anna Maria Island, west Bradenton and Cortez.
In 2023, WMFR won the Florida Association of Special Districts’ District of the Year Award.
Kwiatkowski joined WMFR as a rookie firefighter in 2008, became a part of its Fire & Life Safety Bureau in 2015 and ultimately the district’s fire marshal in 2019.
“Under Kwiatkowski’s direction, WMFR has implemented data-driven community risk reduction initiatives, enhanced short-term rental fire safety programs, and expanded public education outreach, earning statewide and national recognition for measurable improvements in community safety,” the release states.
While he has been named this year’s award winner, he has yet to receive the award.
Kwiatkowski was to receive the award Nov. 3 during the opening ceremony of the 77th annual Florida Fire Prevention Conference at the Coral Springs Marriott. The Islander went to press that day.
Division of State Fire Marshal and Chief Financial Officer Blaze Ingoglia will also recognize Kwiatkowski in Tallahassee during the 2026 Florida Legislative Session.
His name will be engraved on a trophy displayed at Florida State Fire College.
Kwiatkowski called the award a “great honor” in an Oct. 31 interview with The Islander. He said it was a milestone achievement in his career and especially meaningful to him because it recognizes the district’s prevention efforts, which can often go unseen.
“If we do our job well … it keeps the first responders safe and it keeps the public safe,” Kwiatkowski said. “This award just acknowledges and recognizes the work that our team at West Manatee is doing, so it feels great.”
“We just come to work and we try to work hard and make an impact, and I think this award validates what we’ve been doing over the last six years,” he added. “We’re all excited about it.”
Kwiatkowski said one of his proudest accomplishments as fire marshal was his role in the implementation of WMFR’s new short-term rental inspection program, which aims to ensure that every transient public lodging establishment in the district complies with the Florida Fire Prevention Code.
He said the program is already bearing fruit. According to Kwiatkowski, only 24% of structure fires at single-family homes within the district over the past year occurred at short-term rental properties — a sharp decline from past years, when the same metric was more than three times worse.
“We’ve come a long way,” he said. “It’s made a big impact.”
Kwiatkowski also credited Fire Chief Ben Rigney for helping him be the best fire marshal he can be.
“You have to have a chief that allows a fire marshal to do their job,” he said. “I think it starts there.”