Robert Fish, a Cal Fire firefighter for 34 years, is slated to be appointed to take the helm at the Riverside County Fire Department, assuming the position held for more than five years by Chief Bill Weiser.

Weiser is due to officially retire on Dec. 31. Counting his time as a volunteer fireman, Weiser has been with Cal Fire since 1981.

“Robert Fish … most recently served as deputy chief over East County Operations,” according to a statement posted to the board’s agenda for Tuesday. “His leadership record demonstrates a strong commitment to firefighter safety, community partnerships and interagency collaboration.”

Fish has managed operations spanning the entire county region from Beaumont to Blythe, supervising Cal Fire operations in 10 of the 19 municipalities that contract with the county for emergency services. The county has contracted with Cal Fire for fire protection services since the 1940s.

Fish was selected based on vetting handled by a committee composed of two board members, as well as officials from the Executive Office and Cal Fire.

Weiser replaced Shawn Newman as fire chief in August 2020. During the chief’s watch, several fire stations have been constructed and renovated. However, the county fire department’s budget has also grown in that time, though by working with the Executive Office, cost overruns have been held in check.

The post Here’s Who’s Expected To Replace The Retiring Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Chief appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

SAN DIEGO, CA — Following last week’s lithium battery fire resulting in evacuation orders and warnings at a San Diego Gas & Electric battery storage facility in Escondido, the County Board of Supervisors will consider putting a pause on future such facilities.

The action in front of the supervisors on Wednesday will present several options to the board. The body can request additional fire suppression technical reports and/or include new disclosure requirements to make any new battery energy storage systems go “above and beyond” current code requirements.

Additionally, they will have the choice to put a temporary moratorium on the acceptance of new BESS applications or adopt an urgency ordinance requiring new facilities to use modular designs and follow National Fire Protection Association guidelines.

The item was already scheduled for the board but gained more urgency following the Thursday afternoon fire at the SDG&E facility. The fire was allowed to burn out by itself — per industry standard, a statement from the Escondido Fire Department read.

Just one of the site’s 24 cells caught fire.

While no one was injured by the fire, evacuation orders were issued to businesses in the largely industrial part of the city.

The moratorium the supervisors will discuss couldn’t come any sooner, some residents say.

“Area residents are renewing their call for the county to issue a moratorium on building new lithium battery storage facilities in neighborhoods,” reads a statement from a group of citizens, including JP Theberge of the Elfin Forest Harmony Grove Town Council and Joe Rowley, a retired engineer and battery storage facility developer.

“The Escondido battery fire is unfolding in an industrial area away from homes and residences. However, it reinforces the concerns of residents that a project that is 10 times larger (the Seguro project) is being proposed, which would be surrounded by hundreds of homes and upwind from a hospital in northern San Diego County, near Escondido,” they write. “Despite the current fire being in an industrial area, hundreds of businesses were evacuated and many more were told to shelter-in-place. Schools located downwind were closed today as well.”

Should the supervisors elect the moratorium route, it could freeze the proposed AES’ Seguro storage project in Escondido, not far from where Thursday’s fire took place. This project would be capable of storing up to 320 megawatts or 1,280 megawatt hours worth of energy — several times larger than the facility where the fire continues to burn.

Without the BESS facilities, the county could have a difficult time meeting its climate goals.

The battery storage facilities are a component of the county’s respond to green energy, storing energy from renewable sources such as solar or wind to use as needed. They are intended as an alternative or at least a supplement to fossil fuel energies such as natural gas and oil.

Since 2021, there have been 45 fires at similar BESS facilities, including one at the Otay Mesa battery storage earlier this year and one in Valley Center last year.

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