Brian Fennessy

Brian Fennessy grew up in the Los Angeles area, and got into wildland fire straight out of high school in the late 1970s. He mostly worked on, and eventually led, interagency hotshot crews — among the fittest and most respected firefighters in the country. Even decades ago, he said there were questions about why federal wildfire response was split between multiple agencies. “Throwing dirt is throwing dirt, right? And hiking jeep cans up the hills — doesn’t matter what patch you’re wearing, it’s the same work,” he said. “And you know, why wouldn’t there be one agency?” Nearly five decades after he first dug fireline, Fennessy was hired as the U.S. Wildland Fire Service’s very first chief. The U.S. Wildland Fire Service was formed earlier this year by consolidating the fire programs of several Department of Interior agencies, including those of the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service.