Longwood mourns retired battalion chief Don Castner's death
Longwood firefighters remembered Don Castner as a 29-year veteran whose retirement was recently celebrated by Local 3163 and whose loss now echoes through the department.
A retirement sendoff at Longwood Fire Department turned into a moment of mourning for crews who had just praised one of their own: “Earlier this week we celebrated the retirement of Battalion Chief Don Castner after 29 years of dedicated service to Longwood Fire Department! You will be missed Chief!” Longwood Firefighters Local 3163 wrote after Castner’s retirement celebration.
The City of Longwood announced the death of retired Battalion Chief Don Castner, who served from 1991 to 2020 and spent nearly three decades in a department that calls him a familiar presence. City officials praised his dedication, leadership and humor, describing the kind of steady, everyday service that shapes how a fire department works long after a chief hangs up a helmet.
Castner’s career unfolded inside a department that still carries a heavy public-safety workload today. Longwood Fire/Rescue answers about 6,000 emergency calls a year for a population of roughly 50,000 residents. The department has 46 career fire employees and protects 6 square miles inside the city limits, along with another 4 square miles through automatic aid from Seminole County and surrounding municipalities.
That response network runs out of two stations that anchor the city’s fire coverage. Station 15 sits at West Warren Avenue and Milwee Street, where it was built in 1980 and remodeled in 1995. Station 17 stands at Wayman Street and Magnolia Avenue, built in 1984 and later remodeled in 2006. Those stations and the crews inside them are part of the same department Castner served through changing calls, staffing and equipment needs across 29 years.
Longwood also keeps its history visible. The city’s line-of-duty-death memorial page honors firefighters who died in service, including Firefighters Chief Carl Lommler, who died Saturday, April 22, 1973, on the scene of a vehicle fire on Interstate 4. That memorial tradition underscores why the death of a retired battalion chief resonated so deeply inside the department and across Longwood.
Troy Feist, appointed Longwood Fire Chief effective Oct. 1, 2024, now leads the department Castner once helped shape. As crews continue answering calls across Longwood and the surrounding aid area, Castner’s name remains tied to the standards of service, memory and duty that the city keeps close.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
