Musings of a Semi-Retired Incident Management Commander
The San Gabriel Chapter SAF is pleased to announce our upcoming Fall/Winter Dinner meeting with a timely topic and very interesting speaker. Our guest will be Mike Dietrich, Incident Commander for California Interagency Incident Management Team #5. In addition to the recent Station Fire, Mike has also been involved with several high-profile incidents including the Zaca Fire (2007), Hurricane Katrina Recovery (2005) and the Columbia Space Shuttle Debris Recovery (2003). The Station Fire, which started on August 26, 2009, and was officially confirmed contained on October 16, 2009, is the largest fire in recorded history in Los Angeles County and the 10th largest fire in California since 1933.
Mike has over 30 years experience, serving the last 10 years as the Chief of Fire and Aviation Management for the San Bernardino National Forest. Having recently retired (April 2009) from the US Forest Service, Mike now works for the La Verne Fire Department as the Deputy Operations Chief. He has retained his position as the Type 1 Incident Commander for California Interagency Incident Management Team #5. Mike will be sharing some of his more memorable experiences during his career, including some comments about the Station Fire. Hopefully Mike can explain to us how he is able to determine when a fire is "angry", or just merely "cranky"!
Mike was raised in western New York, started his career with the North Dakota State Parks in 1976, moved to the Bureau of Land Management in western Oregon in 1979, and then on to southern California in 1998 to work for the US Forest Service. He has been a SAF member since 1976. Click here to go to the article (and video) recounting Mike's accomplishments and retirement party earlier this year on the Fire Department News Network website.
Join us at 5:30 pm on Thursday, December 10 at Los Angeles County Fire Department Camp 2 in La Canada Flintridge (4810 N. Oak Grove Drive, across from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory - click here for map). Dinner will be served promptly at 6:00 pm with introductions and the presentation beginning at 7:00 pm. Cost is $10.00 payable at the door. RSVP by Monday, December 7 so we can give the camp cooks a head count.
For additional information, or if you have any questions, contact Chapter Chair Doug Nickles at 818-548-2882 or dnickles@yahoo.com. You can also contact J Lopez at jlopez@fire.lacounty.gov for additional information.
Click on the image below to enlarge and read some of Mike's Station Fire quotes.
Click on the image below to enlarge and read some of Mike's Station Fire quotes.
