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.
