SBC O FD BEHIND THE SCENES
By Peter McKernan
CHRIS BROOKHART
Chris works at station 12 as a captain in San
Antonio Heights, and prior to that he worked for
Upland Fire Department and transitioned with
the department to San Bernardino County a little
over two years ago. Chris worked for Upland for 25
years while he was there and 33 years as an EMT.
Currently Chris holds his USAR and HAZMAT certs
and participates in the annual training. Chris has
been married for 27 years to Tanya Brookhart and
they have three dogs and split their residence
between California and Montana.
RYAN GLEDHILL
Ryan currently works at station 164 in
Upland as a firefighter paramedic. He has
been with the county for almost two years
and has been a paramedic for four years.
Ryan is working towards getting his ARFF
certificate and helps with all the charity
events put on by the department. Right
now Ryan lives with his fiancé in Irvine and
has been with her for five years, and they
are getting married next April. Ryan has a
brother who is in the fire service as well for
the past seven years.
LISA MARIN
By Dan Nelson
Members of Division 4 who have been around long enough
to see Lisa Marin in action can attest that when Assistant
Chief Tom Marshall says, “Lisa is literally the backbone of
Division 4,” it is no exaggeration. As Marshall goes on to say,
“No matter what the request, Lisa consistently handles it
faster than expected, and with a smile on her face.”
So who is this “Wonder Woman,” and what
makes her so valuable to Division 4?
FIREWIRE sat down with Lisa Marin to find out.
DANNY VIDANA
Danny currently works at station 74 as a firefighter
paramedic and has worked for SBCoFD for a little
over 3 years and was with San Bernardino City
Fire for 20 years prior to the transition. Danny
has been a paramedic for 28 years and 2 years
as an EMT prior to that. He is a member of the
department’s honor guard and the oldest crew in
the county =’). Danny and his wife live in Highland
and have a daughter Kylie Rae.
DUSTIN De ANGELIS
Dustin works at station 2 in Devore as a Firefighter
Paramedic and has been with the department
since 2015 going through the ranks from AO EMT
at station 302 to AO Medic at station 41 to now
full time as a full-time firefighter. He was in Tower
IX in 2018 and has been a paramedic for 2 years,
and an EMT for 5 years. Dustin is an assistant
fire explorer adviser in division 4/5, Battalion 8.
Dustin and his wife have been married for 1 year
and live in Murrieta with their two dogs.
SEAN MARKEY
Sean works at station 221A as a Captain in
the City of San Bernardino. He worked for
Upland Fire Department for 12 years up until
the transition to San Bernardino County Fire
back a little over 2 years ago. He has been
a paramedic since 2005 and worked on
Reach as a paramedic for 2.5 years. Sean
currently lives in Alta Loma, is married to his
wife Denise for the past 11 years, and they
have 3 boys ages 6, 7, and 9.
Now promoted to senior office assistant, Lisa started her career with
County Fire in November of 2002 as a PSE clerk in Yucca Valley—
the start of 17 “fortunate” years at our headquarters there. Over time
Marin’s job responsibilities have evolved, but have often been numer-
ous. In addition to answering phones calls and being the first point
of contact for members of the public and other agencies requesting
information or assistance from Division 4 staff, Lisa also handles am-
bulance billing for the division. According to Chief Marshall, Lisa pro-
cesses over $2 million worth of ambulance bills annually. The money
generated—and collected—from this service helps Division 4 provide
paramedic-level ambulance services in the Yucca Valley area, and pro-
vides additional funding for fire suppression activities. As most mem-
bers of SBCoFD know, ambulance billing is not easy, and it has to be
done perfectly every time or the likelihood of payment is practically
non-existent.
Lisa is in charge of paying the utilities and maintenance bills for each
station in the division, and is also a valuable assist to the three battal-
ion chiefs assigned to Division 4. For the members of Local 935 serv-
ing in Division 4, Lisa is the “go to” answer person. “Who do I call to
get the bay door repaired?” “Can you add my events onto the division
POD (plan of the day)?” “The computers are down, and I need help
because I don’t know what’s on the POD.” These requests are constant,
but Lisa is always there to provide immediate help even when she is in
the middle of much bigger projects like ambulance billing or providing
public information documents to attorneys and other parties. It’s im-
portant to note, that she always kind, even when juggling her myriad
duties while more is piled on.
For most people, large workloads like Lisa’s would mean that at the
end of the day you just go home and relax. But Lisa is not most people.
12 FIREWIRE • FALL 2019
During her time with SBCoFD, Lisa attended two different colleges
after work and on the weekends. She obtained an associate degree
in business from Copper Mountain College and in 2018, completed
her B.A. in business administration from Cal State, San Bernardino.
In addition to her academic pursuits, Lisa also enjoys following her
favorite sports teams; the Anaheim Ducks, Los Angeles Angels and
the L.A. Rams. She’s not just a casual fan that catches a game on TV
from time-to-time, Lisa goes to watch the games in person! If she’s
not at a game, Lisa might be found at Disneyland. A self-described
“Disney Fanatic”, Lisa likes spending time at the theme park and
collecting Disney memorabilia. Among her favorite Disney items are
Thomas Kincaid, Disney jigsaw puzzles. After she completes each
puzzle, Lisa frames them for display in her home. She also enjoys
spending time with family and watching movies. Romantic comedies
and action movies are among her favorites.
When asked about her favorite part of working for SBCoFD, Lisa an-
swered without hesitation, “I love my job. I love coming to work every
day and being able to help people in the division.” As a member of
Division 4, I can honestly say that Lisa is an incredible person to work
with. But I think that Chief Marshall summarized Lisa’s importance
best when he said, “If I was gone tomorrow, the division would roll on.
If Lisa were gone, we would struggle tremendously.” No doubt that the
members of Division 4 agree with this statement. Lisa is very import-
ant to our success. FIREWIRE and Division 4 truly thank Lisa for her
service and look forward to working with her for many years to come.
Dan Nelson is a FIREWIRE assistant editor and captain at Station 32
in Needles. Check out his Retirement Lane story on retired Local 935
member Adam Kovacovich.
FALL 2019 • FIREWIRE 13