Curtis Brown

Chief Brown began his fire service career in 1995 at the joint CAL FIRE/California Conservation Corp (CCC) Fire Center in the San Diego Unit (MVU) as a CCC Corpsmember. In June 1996, Curtis was hired with CAL FIRE as a Fire Fighter I in the San Diego Unit (MVU), where he worked for several years. In July 2001, he accepted a permanent Fire Fighter II position in the Riverside Unit (RRU), working in the Menifee Battalion. In 2003, Chief Brown promoted to Fire Apparatus Engineer in MVU, assigned to the Ramona Fire Protection District. In 2006, while in MVU, he was promoted to Fire Captain at the Rainbow Conservation Camp and later transferred into the San Diego County Fire Authority program as a Training Captain. In 2012, Chief Brown promoted in the Sonoma Lake Napa Unit (LNU) as the Relief/Safety Battalion Chief.  Chief Brown promoted to an Assistant Chief in 2014 in the RRU, where he was the Fire Chief for the City of Temecula. In 2016, Chief Brown was promoted to Staff Chief at Sacramento Headquarters overseeing CAL FIRE’s Safety, Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and Research & Development (R&D) Programs. In 2019, Chief Brown was promoted to Assistant Region Chief having the managerial responsibility of five Southern CAL FIRE Units, CSR Law Enforcement, Civil Cost Recovery, Management Services, and Safety/Training. In 2021, the Governor appointed Chief Brown to serve on the Commission on Emergency Medical Services (EMS) for the State of California, where he currently represents CAL FIRE.

Chief Brown was a CAL FIRE Incident Management Team member in a command staff position for 11 years. There he held the positions of Safety Officer and Type 1 Incident Commander Trainee; recently, he became qualified as a Type 1 Incident Commander. Chief Brown has been a member of Serious Accident Review Teams since 2008, serving as a Team Lead, Safety, Training, and Labor representative.  Chief Brown was also a cadre member of both S420 – Command and General Staff and Advanced All-Hazard Incident Management (AAIM). Chief Brown is CAL FIRE’s principal member of the National Fire Protection Associations (NFPA) 1977 – Standard on Protective Clothing and Equipment for Wildland Fire Fighting. He also participates in several statewide working groups and committees.

Chief Brown holds an Associate degree from San Diego City College with honors. He is a registered Fire Instructor with the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) in several fire service disciplines and is a certified OSFM Chief Officer.