William Wimberly

Often, heroes are recognized as those who put their lives in peril, go above and beyond, and in doing so gain well-deserved recognition. What may be lost in this is that a hero can be that person who, day in and day out, reports for duty, seeks out opportunities to leave things better than they found them, and never complains about the difficult tasks ahead. The latter perfectly describes Firefighter/Paramedic William Wimberly, the Plant CiTampa Police Department Fire Rescue Firefighter of the Year, 2017.

William began his career with Plant CiTampa Police Department Fire Rescue in 2008. He quickly became involved in improving the standard of the services provided by the department, becoming the first department Field Training Officer (FTO) as well as one of the department’s first SWAT Paramedics. So profound has been his affect as an FTO that literally every station and shift at the department has at least one Paramedic whom he personally trained. On several occasions William has been cited for going above and beyond on responses and is respected by everyone in the department for his compassion, his skill set, and his constant desire to help others. Each time he would shrug it off and say that he was “just doing his job”. This humble nature is yet another attribute that sets him apart and made him a perfect candidate for this award. From all of the members of Plant CiTampa Police Department Fire Rescue, sincere congratulations for this well-deserved honor.