- January 18, 2025
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The Flagler County government will for the first time publicly honor John R. Keppler Jr., a Flagler County volunteer firefighter captain who died after responding to an emergency call in 2002.
The County Commission voted unanimously at its Dec. 14 meeting to rename the county's fire training center on Justice Lane as the John R. Keppler Jr. Training Center.
"It has been a long road," Monica Keppler, Keppler's daughter, said at the meeting. "He was 54 years old when he died. I’m lucky that I got to have him for almost 32 years. On behalf of my family, my mom, my brothers, the rest of our family and our friends who came to share this with us, I thank you from the bottom of my heart."
Keppler's sons, Andrew and John Keppler, are also firefighters.
Firefighter Patrick Del Sordo, who'd served with Keppler and his sons, thanked the county for the renaming, and presented to Andrew and John Keppler a photo of himself and the three Kepplers fighting a fire together at the Bridge Tender Inn.
"This photo has been hanging on my wall with all of my certificates from the '80s and '90s of being a firefighter since 1982 here in Flagler county," he said during the public comment period at the meeting, displaying the photo to the commission. "It’s been a pleasure to fight fires with these gentlemen, and this is a great honor for this man. Thank you guys for doing this."
The Flagler County Commission had on Oct. 5 instructed county staff to look into why Keppler hadn't been formally recognized. Staff met with Keppler's family members and came up with the proposal for the renaming of the training center, as Keppler had been passionate about training. Signage will display the new name at the entrance to the training facility and on the training tower.
Keppler became a volunteer firefighter in Flagler County in 1993, serving at the St. Johns Park Volunteer Fire District after retiring to Flagler from a career as a firefighter in Pennsylvania.
After responding to an attempted suicide on Mango Street in Daytona North on March 21, 2002, he complained of heartburn and went home, Flagler County Interim Chief of Staff Heidi Petito said in a presentation at the commission meeting. Later that night, his wife drove him the hospital, where he died.
Had his death been a year later, it would have been recognized as a line-of-duty death: The Florida Legislature passed a bill in 2003 establishing that when firefighters develop cardiovascular disease, it would be considered a result of their employment.
But because Keppler died before the law went into effect, the county did not recognize his death as a line-of-duty death and did not award benefits to his family, even though both the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and the Florida Fallen Firefighter Memorial include Keppler's name in their lists of fallen firefighters.
"Thank you to the family and everyone for your bringing this out so we can get it done," Flagler County Commission Chairman Donald O'Brien said after the vote, and before the commission recognized the attending members of the Keppler family with a standing ovation. "We’re proud to do that, and so proud that we have folks like that that serve in our community and have for a long time."
