Fighting Fire with Skilled Management and Community Support
A little over a year ago, the La Tuna Fire consumed more than 7,000 acres in the Verdugo Mountains — the largest wildfire to break out in the City of Los Angeles in the last 50 years, raging through the Glendale and Burbank foothills as well as L.A.鈥檚 Sunland-Tujunga region. L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti and Gov. Jerry Brown both declared states of emergency.
In Glendale, not a single structure was lost.
That鈥檚 a point of enormous pride for Woodbury alum Greg Fish, outgoing Glendale fire chief and the newly-appointed head of the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District in Santa Barbara County.
鈥淎t the base of any community worth living in is a desire to be safe,鈥� Chief Fish says. 鈥淐arpinteria-Summerland citizens want to know that their fire department will be there when they are experiencing emergencies or other difficult times. I intend to bring a high level of community involvement to my new position and make sure that the CSFD understands how important strong community ties are. That is something in Glendale that has been a mainstay.鈥�
Chief Fish, brings 31 years of fire service to his post, all of it in Glendale, L.A. County鈥檚 fourth-largest city. His department served some 205,000 residents and responded to more than 19,000 incidents within the city and nearby jurisdictions. 鈥淢y tenure as Glendale chief has been a wonderful adventure,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 gained the post by proving to the community and city council that my direction was one with community priorities.鈥�
An L.A. area native, he got to know the inside of a firehouse at an early age. 鈥淢y father was a fire captain for LAFD, and his lifestyle of service was always something I wanted to duplicate,鈥� he says. Greg earned a B.A. in Organizational Leadership from Woodbury and a Master of Public Administration from Cal State Northridge. 鈥淲oodbury鈥檚 Organizational Leadership was critical for me as a leader,鈥� he recalls. 鈥淚n particular, I was privileged to learn about servant leadership and how effective leaders can bring the most out of a team. Many things I learned at Woodbury I use on a daily basis. Formal education helped me prepare for the transition from the firehouse to the office. I鈥檝e accepted that my role as a firefighter is no longer in directly dealing with day-to-day emergencies.鈥� Still, he says, 鈥渁 fire chief is never fully unplugged.鈥�
While he鈥檚 leaving Glendale behind, Chief Fish has family in Santa Barbara, so the move looks to be a smooth one. Hitting the ground running is likely to be an imperative, given the devastation of past Indian summers. That said, in terms of fires and fire-fighting, there鈥檚 little respite.
鈥淭he new normal is that we no longer have a defined fire season — fires burn all year now,鈥� Chief Fish says.鈥� The public has a huge part in this new normal. The best thing the public can do is help us by maintaining a defensible space in wildland urban interface areas. Brush clearance is a critical component to the safety of any community.鈥�