Chief Michael J. Conrad
2009

Chief Conrad has worked in the fire service in San Bernardino County for 35 years. From 1974 until 2000 he was employed by the U.S. Forest Service where he began as a firefighter and completed his employment as the Deputy Fire Chief for the San Bernardino National Forest. In 2000 he was hired by the San Bernardino County Fire Department as a Battalion Chief for the North Desert Division. In 2002 he was promoted to Division Chief, Valley Division where he served as the Fire Chief for Fontana and Grand Terrace until hired by the San Bernardino City Fire Department as the Deputy Chief in December of 2005. In August of 2006 he was appointed as Acting Fire Chief during the absence of Chief Larry Pitzer and then, in March of 2007 he was promoted permanently to the Fire Chief position.

Chief Conrad is a qualified Incident Commander and served as the IC on Federal Incident Management Team #2 from 1993 until 2002. During his service on the fire team he managed over 25 major wildland fires in the Western U.S. In 2005 he was appointed by the County Fire Chiefs to serve as the Incident Commander on the newly formed County Interagency Incident Management Team.

While serving in the U.S. Forest Service he traveled extensively and worked closely with fire officials from a number of foreign countries. From 1995 until 2000 he taught firefighting courses in Guam, Saipan, Palau and a number of other island nations in the Western Pacific Ocean. He managed a federal program that trained Brazilian firefighters in the U.S. in wildland firefighting techniques. He worked extensively in Brazil assisting their fire service in implementing the wildland firefighting program. Chief Conrad also represented the U.S. in Mexico assisting the Mexican government in controlling major fires in the states of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Baja California.

Chief Conrad is an accredited instructor with the State Fire Marshall in numerous Incident Command courses. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Management and is certified as a Command Officer with the State Fire Marshal. He is also licensed as a General Building Contractor in California.

Chief Conrad grew up in San Bernardino where he attended elementary through high school, graduating from Pacific High School in 1969. He attended San Bernardino Valley College and Cal State San Bernardino while working on his college education.

Serving as the Fire Chief for the City of San Bernardino marks the completion of a lifetime career goal, being allowed to lead people of the caliber of the members of this fire department is an honor that he could only dream of attaining, he knows that he is truly blessed to have a career that he has loved to do everyday of his life.