Chief Brian Fennessy

Brian Fennessy is the inaugural Director of the U.S. Wildland Fire Service (USWFS), a newly established agency within the Department of the Interior tasked with unifying and modernizing federal wildland fire management programs.

With nearly five decades of experience in fire service leadership, Fennessy began his career in the late 1970s on elite federal hotshot crews under the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management as a crew superintendent before joining the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department in 1990, where he became Fire Chief in 2015.

In 2018, Fennessy assumed leadership of the Orange County Fire Authority, one of California’s largest fire departments, where he championed aviation programs, technology integration, and mission-driven culture initiatives.

Since 2019, Fennessy served as Chair of the FIRESCOPE Board of Directors. In 2023, he was named the International Fire Chiefs Association (IAFC) 2023 Career Fire Chief of the Year and California Fire Chiefs Association (CalChiefs) Fire Chief of the year. Prior to accepting the DOI USWFS/Fire Chief position, he served as the President of the California Fire Chiefs Association.

As Director of USWFS, Fennessy oversees efforts to streamline decision-making, strengthen interagency coordination, and enhance wildfire response capabilities nationwide. His appointment reflects a commitment to operational excellence, firefighter safety, and community resilience during an era of increasingly severe wildfire seasons.