Two Gulf Coast communities have been recognized for having a high share of residents who take on jobs that put their own lives at risk for the well-being of others.
The insurance comparison site Insurify named Fort Walton Beach its Most Courageous City Award winner in Florida and Lucedale its winner in Mississippi. The rankings were based on a per-capita measure of residents working in public safety — firefighters, park rangers, law enforcement and emergency medical technicians — as well as high-risk jobs with a large benefit to society, such as electrical power line installers and structural metalworkers, and current or past members of the Armed Forces.
The honors spotlight the concentration of service-minded residents along the Florida Panhandle and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, where military and first-responder communities are a major part of local life.