Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) Chief Brian Fennessy will retire on January 2, 2026, to become the inaugural Director of the newly established United States Wildland Fire Service (USWFS).
The new federal agency, launching in January 2026, is designed to consolidate and modernize federal wildland firefighting efforts.
Fennessy announced the move in a letter to OCFA personnel, sharing that he will complete a federal onboarding process before stepping into the role.
He highlighted the agency’s national reputation, the strength of OCFA’s mission-driven culture, and the opportunities ahead for improving coordination and safety at a federal scale.
Fennessy’s nearly 50-year career spans the full spectrum of wildland and metropolitan fire service leadership. He started in 1978 with the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management as a hotshot and helitack firefighter, eventually serving as a crew superintendent.
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