Miami-Dade fire lieutenant accused of secretly filming colleagues in station bathrooms
A former Miami-Dade Fire Rescue lieutenant was arrested Monday on charges he secretly videoed his colleagues inside two fire station bathrooms over several months, according to his warrant.
Manuel “Manny” Fernandez, 55, faces 11 counts of video voyeurism stemming from the more than 600 clips detectives found on a clandestine camera disguised as a wall charger his colleagues found in the bathroom, his arrest warrant states.
Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said Fernandez is no longer employed at the department, but did not specify whether he was fired or he resigned.
“Miami-Dade Fire Rescue (MDFR) is aware of the arrest of a former employee,” the department said in a statement. “The individual was a firefighter who is no longer employed with the department. MDFR fully cooperated with law enforcement throughout their investigation, which led to the arrest of the former employee.”
Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office Detective Renzo Herrera said in the warrant that 11 out of the 18 employees filmed were positively identified in the videos while “in their most vulnerable state, within their sanctuary where they had absolute expectation of privacy.”
The videos were shot between Feb. 11, 2023, and April 1, 2023, according to the warrant.
A firefighter found the first camera on April 1, 2023, inside the men’s room at Station 69, located at 11151 NW 74th St., the warrant states. The firefighter gave the device to a supervisor, who realized it was a camera, Herrera wrote.
In one video that detectives watched, a firefighter wearing a gray Fire Rescue uniform shirt and a silver watch on his left wrist was seen adjusting the camera, the warrant states.
Herrera also determined that the device was used on March 12, 2023, inside a women’s bathroom at Station 66, located at 3100 SE Eighth St. in Homestead, according to the warrant.
Detectives focused on Fernandez by comparing shift rosters from both stations, Herrera wrote.
Herrera went to JC’s Recovery Center, an alcohol and drug rehabilitation facility in Hollywood, to speak with Fernandez on April 24, 2023, but he refused to speak with him without an attorney present, according to the warrant. The warrant did not detail why Fernandez was in the rehab facility.
Herrera noted in the warrant that Fernandez was wearing the same watch as the man seen adjusting the camera in one of the videos.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Fernandez was being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a bond of $27,000, according to Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office online jail records.
This story was originally published July 8, 2025 at 1:30 PM.
