Chief Randy Bruegman has quite a résumé. He currently is the fire chief at the Fresno (Calif.) Fire Department. He's published two books about the fire service and is working on his third, Advanced Fire Administration. He also is president of the Center for Public Safety Excellence headquartered in Chantilly, Va., which is one of the many leadership positions he's held at the local, state and federal levels. In fact, he is a past president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs and has worked with the Department of Commerce's National Research Council, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Institute of Standards and Technology in several leadership positions.

That's just a sample of Bruegman's many accomplishments from throughout his more than 30 years of fire service. Bruegman said he joined the fire service as a young volunteer firefighter in Fort Collins, Colo., back in the 1970s. He was attracted to the job's variety of duties, which included an unpredictable day where anything could happen and the physical challenges associated with fighting fires. However, the greatest attraction to the job was being able to help those citizens who were in need or found themselves in extenuating circumstances.

“Just being able to help people who are having a significant event, to respond and to show up and to help them in that time, is very rewarding,” Bruegman said.

Bruegman began his service at a time when the fire department was innovating to protect citizens during major incidents that dealt with chemical spills or other hazardous materials. Early in his career, Bruegman worked closely with his colleagues on what would one day be dubbed “hazmat” incidents. In fact, he coordinated the hazmat program in Fort Collins for more than eight years. At the time, the fire service was just beginning to adopt hazardous response strategies, he said.

“It was really a time when we were making it up as we went along,” Bruegman said. “Every call, we would take back lessons learned and distribute them nationally. At that time, there wasn't even commercial equipment available to us — like plug-and-patch kits — so we had to fabricate much of what we were using in the field back at the firehouse. … So that was very fun because it was an opportunity to really innovate on a day-to-day basis.”

Operational strategies aren't the only aspect of the job that's significantly changed. Communications systems are completely different from when he first started, Bruegman said. When he first joined the fire service, he and his fellow firefighters communicated over a 3-watt portable radio with “maybe three channels in it,” he said. Now, trunked systems can accommodate dozens of users and interoperable communications between local, state and federal agencies are possible.

“It's just been a revolution in technology,” Bruegman said.

Yet the evolution of technology has added a level of complexity to the fire chief's job. In the past, local agencies were most concerned with their own communication systems and worried less about what their neighbors were doing. Thirty years ago, fire chiefs didn't worry about talking with the department of public works, the police department or the highway patrol helicopter, Bruegman said. Now, the fire service has the ability to link into a major incident from the command-and-control center and work closely with other agencies to manage the event.

Nevertheless, today's communications technology is a vital tool that helps fire chiefs do their jobs by providing them with a full cadre of information that helps them lead their teams during an incident, Bruegman said.

“It used to be that we would be in charge, and now we are having joint command operations and being able to link these people on various tactical channels so we can manage the incident much better,” he said. “It's just such a higher level of sophistication that is partly driven by technology and partly driven by the realization that if we are to be effective we must be able to communicate. We must have the command system and structures in place, not only for the fire service but for all of the allied support agencies that are necessary to carry out large-scale operations.”