Shasta County has a new fire chief. Former Chief Mike Hebrard has taken a new job as an assistant region chief for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Bret Gouvea, the incident commander for July’s Carr Fire and an assistant chief up until now, has been named the new Cal Fire unit chief for Shasta County. Gouvea has been on the job since December. He was to be sworn in at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting after officials voted to make the appointment.
The fire chief in Shasta County is also considered the county’s fire warden, the Shasta-Trinity Unit chief and an employee of Cal Fire.
Gouvea’s career in fire began in 1985, when he started as a volunteer for the Shasta County Fire Department, a board report says. He joined the Shasta-Trinity Unit as an employee in 1990, eventually rising through the ranks to become an assistant chief and then, in 2015, moving to the role of incident commander for a multi-agency team in the area.
We honor you, Bret Gouvea.