Deputy Chief Karen Hunter is retiring at the end of this month after a distinguished, 34-year barrier-shattering career.
She started in the fire service as a volunteer with the Apopka Fire Department in 1985 and was the first female firefighter/ emergency medical technician hired by the Ocoee Fire Department later that year. She was the only female candidate in her firefighter classes at Seminole Community College. In 1986, she started as a firefighter/ paramedic for the city of Kissimmee.
She came to Kissimmee for the larger medical ambulance operations.
“The Kissimmee and St. Cloud Fire Departments ran a joint ambulance service for Osceola County in those days,” Hunter recalled.
She remembered several occasions on distant calls to remote parts of the county how a helicopter ambulance would be dispatched from Orlando, fly past them on the way to the scene, and then pass them going the other way.