Santa Barbara County Fire Chief John Scherrei will soon be passing the firefighting torch to someone else, following his retirement from county service in January 2009.
On Sept. 22, Scherrei confirmed his pending retirement plans with County Executive Officer Michael F. Brown and the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. The county human resources department will soon develop a nationwide recruitment plan.
Brown appointed Scherrei as the county fire department chief in October 1999. Before coming to Santa Barbara County, Scherrei had a 28-year career with the City of Los Angeles Fire Department.
“It’s both exciting and emotional to be leaving,” Scherrei told the Sun in an interview. “I came to dance and fell in love with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.”
As fire chief, Scherrei lead the fire department through both the 2007 Zaca Fire—the largest fire in the county’s known history—and the 9,400-acre Gap Fire that blazed earlier this year.
“Both of those fires are now going to be studied at national fire academies because they were complex fires that were fought well,” Scherrei said.
And while the Zaca Fire was considerably larger, Scherrei said it was the Gap Fire that had him worried.
“The two fires were very different. It was a backcountry fire versus a front country fire,” he explained. “After the Gap Fire really got going, I thought, ‘I’m going to end my career here losing 200 to 300 homes.’”
But thanks to tireless leadership and firefighting, no lives were lost and no homes were destroyed in either fire.
During his time as chief, Scherrei also oversaw the addition of paramedics to the county’s engine companies, the creation and implementation of two brush-clearing crews to the department, and the merging of the Solvang and Orcutt fire departments into the county fire department.
“Chief Scherrei has served with distinction here in Santa Barbara County and throughout his entire career,” Brown said in the press release. “He has advanced the state of fire response and all-hazard emergency response in the county, and our residents, businesses, and visitors have benefited from his leadership and duty to serve.”
According county officials, Santa Barbara County Deputy Fire Chief Tom Franklin will serve as interim chief during the recruitment process. Franklin will begin his new duties in November, when Scherrei is expected to take some vacation time.
Franklin has been a member of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department since 1977 and has served as deputy fire chief since February 2005. He holds a bachelor’s degree in geography from UC Santa Barbara, and has served as a fire division chief, fire marshal, and battalion chief for the county.
When asked to discuss some of the biggest challenges facing the county, Scherrei said it was a matter of generating and managing resources.
“The North County challenge, as it has been in the past, is getting to the scene of a fire with enough people. We’re pretty scattered up there,” Scherrei said.
A similar problem can be found in the Santa Ynez Valley area, where one battalion chief often ends up “supervising firefighters out of eight or nine different stations,” he said.
In order to remedy the staffing shortage, Scherrei said that he’s worked “almost exclusively” trying to staff more firefighters at each station. Currently, there are only three at each station, a number that often proves difficult when fighting a fire.
“Even when fighting a fire at a single-family home, there are so many different tasks,” Scherrei said.
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 2, 2008.