South San Francisco Fire Department Welcomes New Chief

By Bay City News Service:

South San Francisco’s new fire chief went to his first day of work as a firefighter in seven years on Monday.

Chief Gerald Kohlmann is bringing his decades of experience as a firefighter to the South San Francisco Fire Department.

A veteran firefighter with years of experience running a department, he left firefighting seven years ago and until taking his new position was working for PG&E coordinating between the utility and emergency responders.

He said Monday morning he wasn’t looking to leave PG&E, but was drawn to South San Francisco’s department while doing emergency response training there.

“I got to know the people more when I was doing the training and was very impressed with how engaged and thoughtful they were,” Kohlmann said.

Kohlmann is no stranger to running a fire department. He previously was chief of the Redwood City Fire Department and before that was a deputy fire chief in San Jose.

A Redwood City native, Kohlmann’s firefighting career began as a volunteer firefighter in 1975. He was hired by the city’s fire department two years later.

He joined the San Jose department in 1980, rising through the ranks as a firefighter, fire inspector, fire captain, battalion chief and eventually deputy fire chief.

Kohlmann returned to the Redwood City department as fire chief in 2003, overseeing its 70 staff members until leaving that position in 2007 to go into private consulting. His consulting work included teaching incident command systems and eventually started doing subcontracting work with PG&E, later taking on a full-time position there.

When asked about returning to firefighting, Kohlmann said, “I think it’s a passion that never leaves. Fire services is an incredible place to combine your mind, body and community service.”

Kohlmann takes over as the first permanent chief since Phil White retired from the post in April.

He said he thinks he can apply what he learned in the last 30 years of his career to the good work he sees in South San Francisco.

He’ll be overseeing a staff of about 90 people working in five fire stations.

But after being sworn in Monday morning, Kohlmann was just learning the ropes, going to orientation briefings, meeting with staff and getting to know the department’s technology. One stop he made was at the Local Assistance Center open for three days this week at the parking garage at 329 Miller Ave.

The center, organized by the county’s Office of Emergency Services, is connecting residents and business whose property was damaged during severe winter storms in December with aid organizations.

But there, Kohlmann was just “an active spectator” learning as much as he can about his new city, he said.

A change of command ceremony will be held for Kohlmann on Wednesday morning at Fire Station 61.