BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – Wyatt Werneth began his career
in 1994 after serving an eight year commitment with the U.S. Navy.
While in college, Werneth started his own diving business
where he met a volunteer firefighter from the Cape Canaveral Volunteer Fire
Department.
He then joined the Cape Canaveral Volunteer Fire
Department, and he also tried out for a Brevard County lifeguard position.
It didn’t take long before Werneth was improving his
skill set by attending Fire College and EMT school to become a better
lifesaver.
Lifeguarding came natural for him, and he excelled in
rank very quickly. His first year he became a Lieutenant and the following year
a Captain running his own lifeguard team.
In 1996, the Cape Canaveral Volunteer Fire Department
requested that the Fire Department manage the lifeguards.
Werneth jumped at the opportunity to go full-time with
the Fire Department and by 1997, the Fire Department had successfully formed a
lifeguard division of the fire department with Werneth in command.
Before the year ended, Cape Canaveral lifeguards had been
certified as an advanced certified life-saving organization. The very first
year, the lifeguards proved invaluable by making a rescue, which earned Werneth
and the team EMT of the Year.
He implemented many improvements such as the first
defibrillator and rescue watercraft at Jetty Park.
Werneth accepted the position as Brevard County Ocean
Rescue Chief in 1999, where he established the first Brevard County ocean
rescue rookie class to recognize all lifeguards.
In 2004, he joined the U.S. Coast Guard and soon after,
became a naval officer for the Navy Sea Cadet Corp as a special warfare
orientation course instructor.
In 2007, Brevard County experienced 10 drownings in a
short period of time. To help raise awareness, he decided he would paddle board
up the coast of Florida for 10 days to raise awareness.
The 345 mile trip from the Miami Beach lifeguard station,
up the coast to the Jacksonville lifeguard station, set a Guinness world
record.
He is currently working with other lifeguards to form a
non-profit organization called the Life Rescue Project. Their mission is to
implement life safety devices along all beaches in areas where there are no
lifeguards.
Werneth has since retired, but remains active in water
safety as an active rescuer with the Melbourne Beach and Satellite Beach
Volunteer Fire Department’s water rescue teams, as well as being instrumental
in discussions of a Brevard County Sheriff’s Office Aviation Rescue Swimmer
team.
He has committed his entire life to ocean safety and
continues with his life-saving legacy to inspire ocean rescuers everywhere.
