WASHINGTON — Former Newport Beach (California) Division Chief Paul Matheis has been sworn in as the newest U.S. fire administrator.
The Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI) made the announcement in its latest ‘Washington Watch’ update of legislative and policy news affecting the nation’s fire service.
While there has been no formal announcement from the U.S. Fire Administration, presumably due to the Department of Homeland Security shutdown, Matheis’ name appears on the Department of Homeland Security’s website in a listing of senior leaders in the department.
Matheis, a 30-year veteran of the Newport Beach Fire Department, started as a firefighter in 1980. Prior to that, he was a wildland firefighter with the California Division of Forestry, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Matheis also served as president of the Training Officers Section in the California Fire Chiefs Association and is an adjunct instructor at the National Fire Academy.
We asked: What should be the No. 1 priority for the new U.S. fire administrator?
You answered:
- “Ensure funding for the National Fire Academy and outside training.”
- “Continue to develop national data collection on incident response and give a voice to the fire service when it comes to emerging energy hazards.”
- “One thing that needs to be worked on nationwide is standard training and certification requirements across the board that have teeth, that would also allow standard reciprocity across state lines.”
- “Get the NFA reopened for all classes. But probably the biggest priority for the CFSI and the new U.S Fire Administrator should be to get the USFA and the NFA out from under the Dept. of Homeland Security, preferably to a stand-alone agency. Homeland Security does nothing for us but drag us down and take our funding. Not having the NFA open while the FBI Academy is running wide open is a national disgrace that tells everyone exactly how important the government considers our service to the nation. I’m not a paramedic — only an old EMT since they first coined the term. But I do know what works, and that’s good old-fashioned PR. And the LUCAS machine is a godsend as well. Sometimes, these people who update standards of care just feel the need to say something, as opposed to making actual improvements to the system.”
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