Marin County’s fire chief of more than a decade received a top state honor in October 2023, earning the Fire Chief of the Year distinction from the California Fire Chiefs Association. But if you ask him about it, he’ll say, “I credit the team that surrounds me for any recognition I get. The only thing I’m good at is picking a good team.”

Modesty aside, Weber’s profile and experience are impressive by any standard.

He doesn’t come from a firefighting family dynasty. “Dad was an electrician, and Mom was a teacher. It was just something that I loved,” he said.

Weber entered the fire service “at the ripe old age of 14. There was a program called the Fire Explorers.” That program for teenagers gives insight and experience in the fire service, a sort of way to try it on for size. “I’d go to the fire station and do ride-alongs when I could. I just fell in love with the profession.”

Maybe that had something to do with his creation of the FIRE Foundry program. FIRE stands for Fire Innovation Recruitment and Education, and its criteria make it available to most if not all, eligible applicants. According to the program website, interested young people need a high school diploma or GED, to be proficient in English, to be 18 years or older and to have proof of employment eligibility and an interest in a career in fire service. 

Weber was on a roll from day one. “I served 20 years as a volunteer firefighter: I graduated on a Friday evening and on Monday morning I started at the Academy. I’ve been a seasonal firefighter, a firefighter paramedic, and a training officer, and I’ve worked my way from engineer to captain, battalion chief and deputy fire chief. I have a bachelor’s degree in emergency services from Cal State at Long Beach.”

Because every firefighter knows that prevention is key, Weber also worked to create the Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority.

Wildfires can and do take hundreds and thousands of acres, not to mention lives and wildlife lost. The prevention authority teaches vegetation management, improving detection and evacuation management, as well as how to build fire-resistant homes. It does education and outreach and administers grant programs because, as he said, “You don’t know what all you don’t know.” But he and his teams do know how to educate a person thoroughly.

Weber added that he’ll never stop trying to do everything better, making life safer for everyone; and he has had recent successes. “I think the fire sieges we’ve had across the North Bay led to Prevention Measure C.”

The Marin Wildfire Prevention Authority Measure C is a special tax charged to all parcels of real property in Marin County within defined boundaries. The voters approved the tax in March 2020 for a period of 10 years beginning with the2020-21 fiscal year.

“We have the structure that is boundary-less across all those agencies, so we can work together. We are building a new dispatch beginning in July. It will be the first time in our county’s history that all fire and emergency will be under one roof.”

Working a fire career for as many decades as Weber has, it would be hard to not see change everywhere – good changes, he noted.

“We’re operating more electronics than mechanical valves than when I started. We have surveillance aircraft, so we can see day or night through the smoke. There are mountaintop cameras for early detection, and workaround drones can assist with anything from a fire to a water emergency. Monitoring data in real-time, we can respond more quickly and efficiently.”

He continued: “Certainly we have safer equipment and personal protection equipment, too, now that we know more about chemicals. We can build our firehouses so we don’t track toxins into living quarters. We used to sleep with boots next to bed: Remember seeing that in books and movies?  Now we know we need to leave them where it’s well-ventilated and they can be decontaminated. I’ve seen significant progress in so many areas, including learning that asbestos is a great material, but not good for us.

Weber feels that the future holds a lot of opportunities, with an aging population and such.

“Right now, if you call 911, you get the most expensive taxi to the most expensive facility and that doesn’t work for everyone. And if you are dealing with a loved one who has dementia, this takes them out of their comfort zone. But we’re like dinosaurs: If we don’t change, or evolve, we won’t exist anymore. I think we’ll be expanding a lot in the scope of offered services.”

The California Fire Chiefs Association recognizes outstanding members such as Weber each year, with the top honor named after Ronny Jack Coleman, a former state fire marshal who is considered one of the most influential fire service leaders in the nation’s history. Weber speaks of him with great reverence and respect.

“I remember listening to his lectures and then getting to work with him on a professional level. He was ahead of his time, doing a lot of innovative stuff. It was quite an honor to receive an award named for him.”

Chief Weber’s oldest daughter wants to go into paramedicine, but his younger children aren’t too interested in what Dad does. “Maybe if they could have seen me in my younger days when it was much less paperwork and phone calls and emails, they’d have thought it was more glamorous and exciting,” he said. But with growth comes change, so who is to say there won’t be more Webers going through the programs their father so carefully created and serves so well?

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