OCFA Chief Brian Fennessy named Fire Chief of the Year

The heads of firefighting agencies from throughout California named Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy Fire Chief of the Year, officials said Thursday.

The Ronny Jack Coleman Award is given in recognition of exceptional leadership in fire and rescue services. Fennessy received multiple nominations to receive the honor from the leaders of other firefighting agencies.

One of them, Mammoth Lakes Fire Chief Frank Firevalt, said Fennessy served with “genuine humility” and described him as an example “of what ‘right’ looks like over decades of service.”

Fennessy began his career with the U.S. Forest Service as a member of a hotshot crew, an elite team assigned to tackle the most dangerous wildfires. He went on to join San Diego Fire-Rescue in 1990 and was eventually promoted to the chief of that department in 2015.

He became the head of the OCFA in April 2018, just months before the 23,000-acre Holy fire broke out in the Trabuco Canyon area. He would go on to helm the agency through numerous major disasters, all while seeking to modernize it in the face of consecutive years of climate-change driven drought.

Fennessy was a vocal supporter of the Fire Integrated Real-time Intelligence System (FIRIS). It can deliver up-to-the-minute updates on a wildfire’s behavior directly to the cellphones of crews on the ground and has been used to guide firefighting efforts throughout the state.

“I am humbled to accept the 2022 Ronny Jack Coleman Award on behalf of the OCFA firefighters and professional staff who collectively embody the tenets of professionalism and care this honor signifies and represents,” said Chief Fennessy in a statement.

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