Changing of the Guard Across Santa Barbara County’s Fire Departments

Every 48 hours outside Buckingham Palace, the guards change at 11 a.m. — a ritual of precision meant to keep eyes fresh on what they are charged to protect.

Recently, Santa Barbara County’s fire service, which comprises seven distinct departments, has undergone its own changing of the guard. 

Since the end of 2025, Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Mark Hartwig retired after more than three decades in the field, Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Chief Robert Kovach stepped down in January, Montecito Fire Chief David Neels retired effective March 31, and Lompoc Fire Chief Brian Fallon left to take the top job in Montecito — creating yet another opening in his wake. That’s four chiefs in roughly four months.

“The recent and upcoming leadership transitions within our department reflect a natural generational shift,” said Michael Gray, captain and public information officer for Santa Barbara County Fire. “A group of long-serving firefighters and officers from one generation have reached retirement age around the same time.”

That cohort — many of whom entered the service in the 1990s and early 2000s — is now aging out after 25 to 30 years, creating openings that departments say they have long been preparing for.

Santa Barbara County’s now-retired chief Hartwig came to the county in 2019 after a decade rising through the ranks at San Bernardino County Fire. His successor, Garrett Huff, began his firefighting career in 1999, joined Santa Barbara County in 2005, and over the next two decades moved from firefighter-paramedic to deputy fire chief before taking the top spot.

In Montecito, Neels — who spent decades with Santa Barbara County Fire before joining Montecito in 2019 and becoming chief in 2023 — retired this spring. His replacement, Fallon, came not from inside Montecito’s own ranks but from nearby Lompoc — and, before that, from Southern California.

“I’ve been able to continue to be part of the same group, just now wearing a different patch,” Fallon said.

That sort of movement, Fallon said, is common at the chief level. Unlike lower ranks, where careers are often built over decades in a single department, the chief’s post can turn over every three to six years to avoid burnout and bring in “fresh eyes on a department.”

“You can feel when you’ve taken the department maybe to the point that it’d be good now for some other members to come in,” Fallon said.

Dan Stefano, who took over Carpinteria-Summerland after a long career in Orange County, described the same rhythm. “There comes a time when you do need to transition out, let new leadership come in,” Stefano said. “It’s good for everyone.”

Stefano spent 18 years in Laguna Beach and then more than 12 as chief in Costa Mesa before moving north. He took over for Robert Kovach, who spent decades with Lompoc’s department before joining Carpinteria-Summerland in 2011 and becoming chief in 2023.

“What I always look at is the organization — who’s on your bench,” Stefano said. “Who are those folks that are going to be the next chief officers?”

When chiefs do not rise from within, they often move laterally from one department to another. In practice, that means the bench is not confined to a single agency — it is regional.

In Santa Barbara County, the boundaries between departments are unusually permeable. Chiefs from different agencies speak often, train together, plan together, and rely on one another during major incidents. That arrangement is formalized through the Santa Barbara County Fire Chiefs Association, but it is sustained, those interviewed said, by relationships rather than bylaws alone.

“There is a special sense of collaboration in Santa Barbara County, for sure,” Fallon said. “Everything that we do is a collaborative process. There’s no one agency up here … making decisions independently.”

Stefano, who has worked in multiple counties, said much the same. Santa Barbara, he said, is unusually close-knit. That cohesion may be what has allowed the current wave of turnover to unfold with relatively little disruption. The incoming chiefs are not strangers to the terrain, nor to one another. They are either products of their own departments’ succession plans or veterans of nearby agencies already steeped in the county’s way of doing business.

Still, the shifts are not without contrast. Compensation across departments varies widely, reflecting differences in local cost of living and funding. Montecito’s fire chief position, for instance, carries a salary exceeding $330,000 — among the highest in the region — while Lompoc’s chief earns less than half that amount.

Fallon, who has now worked on both sides of that spread, put it this way: “On paper, there can be noticeable variation in fire chief salaries across agencies. Differences in salary often reflect variables including the size and complexity of the organization, scope of services, revenue sources, cost of living, and governance structure.”

“With that in mind,” he added, “the differences in pay … are not unusual.”

In Lompoc, the effects of that turnover are still playing out. Battalion Chief Kevin Shay has stepped in as interim chief while the city begins its search for a permanent replacement. In a statement, Public Information Officer Emily Pruitt said the department “remains committed to maintaining the high level of service the community expects” and will continue operations uninterrupted during the transition. Fallon, in announcing his departure, expressed confidence in that continuity, noting he leaves “knowing the department is in very capable hands.”

It’s not Buckingham Palace, but across Santa Barbara County, a coordinated changing of the guard is underway — charged with safeguarding the land, our homes, and ourselves.