The Ubiquitous They — Steve Vucurevich

Who are you and what is your role in the community? I have been the  for the city of Benicia for 2½ years.  I was in the Fairfield department for 26 years. I've been in the fire service for a total 32 years full time and was a reserve firefighter before that.

What inspired you to be in the fire service? I was going to Solano College with an interest in the Forest Service. There was a program at Sierra College where reserve firefighters received free housing, so I thought I'd take a fire science class. That's when I started to love the fire service. I went on to a reserve program in Fairfield dispatching. When I got to go out on calls, it just confirmed that this is what I wanted to do. I went through the fire science program at Solano College and then the firefighter academy at Solano. I first got hired in Reno.

What’s the biggest challenge of your job? Right now it's definitely the budget situation and the fiscal challenges that we face as a city. We don't have a lot of firefighters; our regular staffing is eight. We depend a lot on mutual and automatic aid. For example, if there is a structure fire, automatically we get an engine from Vallejo as part of first-line response in order to have the appropriate number of firefighters. It's reciprocal, we help them. Countywide, we have mutual and automatic aid, so we share resources. We are in the same labor group with Vallejo, American Canyon and Fairfield, so we all share the benefits.

What is challenging about Benicia? We have a large industrial park. The refinery is part of that even though it does have its own department. We have a lot of older historic buildings downtown and in the arsenal. In addition, we have the open spaces in Southampton that are challenging with steep canyons and houses above. We are a highly trained department and provide an excellent level of service to the community. We do a good job at getting on scene quickly, addressing problems before they become large problems. That's the key to our success.

How is the BERT program going? BERT has been very successful. Initially, we were using firefighters to do the training. One of our captains, Casey Smith, took the lead. We are the leader in the county for community emergency response teams. Over the last couple of years we've transitioned to having the BERT members doing the instructional component. It's been very successful. People who want to get trained can go to the BERT  web page.

What would you recommend for someone interested in fire service? I highly recommend several departments, including the Sierra Fire Explorer Post. High-school students get an opportunity to have exposure to what the fire service is all about. It gives them the ability to see if it's a good fit. The Fairfield reserve volunteer program is structured to prepare candidates to be firefighters. They have to be in school and working toward a fire service career. They get hands-on experience with a lot of training and it gives the fire service help. It gives us an opportunity to hire from a pool of candidates we already know. Community colleges, Solano and Los Banos, offer fire-service programs as well as firefighter academies. It's not easy becoming a firefighter but it's very rewarding.  And of course Benicia has a reserve program too.

What achievement are you most proud of? I brought a collaborative approach to leading the department. We adopted a labor management model that was developed by the Phoenix Fire Department. It's a big cultural change for the organization so it doesn't happen overnight, but we've come a long way. It's very healthy for the department.

What do you want the Benicia community know about the department? We are a full-service Fire Department so we provide medical service. We are trained in confined space and technical rescue and are highly trained for vehicle extraction. We have very talented members and a great department.