The Interior Department named a former hotshot firefighter from California to lead its new office consolidating wildland fire response on Monday.
Brian Fennessy, who most recently helmed the Orange County Fire Authority in Southern California, will oversee the nascent office as it unifies firefighting efforts across Interior’s agencies and bureaus that tend more than 500 million acres of public lands.
“Wildfire response depends on coordination, clarity and speed,” Fennessy said in a statement. “This initial planning effort is about bringing programs together, strengthening cooperation across the Department and building a framework that better supports firefighters and the communities they serve.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum first announced plans to launch a fire service last year, on the heels of a proposal from the Trump administration to shift public land firefighting duties to his department from where they’ve long been housed at the U.S. Forest Service, under the Department of Agriculture.
