Biography

I was with the California Department of Forestry (CDF) for 31 years, from 1961 to 1993. I began as a Firefighter and retired as Battalion Chief of Shingletown Battalion Shasta Unit. At retirement, my qualifications under the Incident Command System were Incident Commander (Type 1); Operations Section Chief (Type1); and Fire Behavior Analyst ( Type 1).

I started as a crewman in Perris in Riverside County and have worked as Hand Crew Foreman and Engine Foreman in both wildland and structure disciplines; including Helitack Foreman and as Battalion Chief in three different Ranger Units.

I went to fires all over the State of California but was stationed and worked in the following Ranger Units: Riverside; Tulare Napa; North Region Office; Lake; Humboldt; and Shasta.

After the 2018 Carr Fire I came out of retirement to work for Nadine Bailey at the Family Water Alliance  as her Fire Advisor.  I formed a group of professionals who investigated fire spread through structures in conflagrations. We did boots on the ground investigation  of seven Northern California conflagrations, including the Carr and 2018 Camp Fire. We looked at thousands of burned homes, analyzed burn patterns,  and made several presentations to interested groups.