My introduction to the fire service was in high school through a local Fire Explorer program in Sacramento, CA, where I fell in love with the fire service. During my first year of college, I realized I needed a Firefighter 1 & EMT certificates to apply for most firefighting jobs, so I attended the Butte Fire Academy and received my Firefighter 1 and EMT certifications. Immediately after earning my associate’s degree at American River College, I was hired as a Fire Apparatus Engineer in a rural county fire department in central California. Several years later, I moved to another agency in central California where I spent over 25 years serving the community. The community I served covers 25 square miles, has a population of 125,000, and runs over 10,000 calls for service per year. During my tenure I held the ranks of Firefighter, Engineer, Captain, Training Officer, Battalion Chief, and Deputy Chief. Additionally, I completed my formal education and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Cogswell Polytechnical College and a master's degree from Columbia Southern University.
Significant specialty assignments and projects include: Haz-mat Team Leader & manager, USAR team member, Strike Team Leader, Task Force Leader, policy committee member, participating in multiple fire department reaccreditation processes, apparatus committee chairman, member of station design committee, PSTrax roll-out committee, treasurer of the Central Valley Fire Chiefs Association, instructor at Fresno Fire Symposium, adjunct instructor at the local community college, serving as the Deputy Chief of Operations, Training, and Logistics Divisions. The most rewarding part of my job was training and mentoring fellow firefighters.
I look forward to working with the men and women of Lewis County Fire District 6 to provide the highest level of customer service to the citizens we serve.
Respectfully,
James M. Damico