Bishop City Council and the Bishop Rural Fire Protection District Announces Conditional Offer of Employment as Fire Chief to Bret Russell

BISHOP CITY COUNCIL AND THE BISHOP RURAL FIRE PROTECTION  DISTRICT ANNOUNCES CONDITIONAL OFFER OF EMPLOYMENT AS FIRE  CHIEF TO BRET RUSSELL

BISHOP — The Bishop City Council and the Bishop Rural Fire Protection District  (BRFPD) are extremely pleased to announce that it has extended a conditional  offer of employment as Fire Chief to Bret Russell who currently serves as Fire  Chief in Beckwourth, California. The City Council and BRFPD are also excited to  announce that Mr. Russell has accepted the offer. Chief Russell will bring an extensive record of firefighting and leadership experience with him. Mr. Russell  comes from a fire family. His earliest memories in life are of a fire station,  hanging out with his dad (an active Fire Chief in Arizona), and watching the inner  workings of a fire department. He knew from a young age that he wanted to be a  firefighter. He did his first ride along at 15 years old and was hooked after his first  Code 3 (lights and sirens) run. Bret joined the Fire Explorers with the Orange  County Fire Authority (OCFA) shortly after this experience and started down the  path to becoming a firefighter. Bret was soon hired as a reserve, paid on-call firefighter with OCFA and was sent directly to the academy. His path has allowed  him to have a wide variety of experiences with different agencies as a  professional firefighter, fire chief, training chief, Urban Search and Rescue logistics technician, and as a Regional Occupational Program instructor teaching  Emergency Medical Response, Emergency Medical Technician, and Fire  Technology. Bret is excited to be the Fire Chief for Bishop and is looking forward  to the future with the City. Outside of the fire service, he is a second-degree Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, and actively competes and teaches. Bret and his  family look forward to meeting the community and being a part of all it offers.

This offer is conditioned upon successful completion of certain State mandated  pre-employment screenings as well as formal approval of an employment  agreement by the City Council. Bret’s anticipated start date would be  approximately November 1, 2023.

The City and BRFPD would also like to extend our thanks to Interim Chief Pat  O’Neil for stepping up to keep our fire department moving forward.

News Staff