(FOX40.COM) — The Cal Fire Nevada Yuba Placer Unit and the Placer County Fire Department Fire Chief Brian Estes have announced his retirement at the end of the year after 35 years of service.
• Video above: 20-minute interview of Chief Brian Estes
Chief Estes grew up in Butte County, where he graduated from the top of his class from the Butte Fire Academy in 1991. He started his career in San Diego and made his way to Tuolumne County to be part of their helicopter crew.
During his career, Estes was promoted to captain in 2002 and battalion chief in 2005. He told FOX40 the most exciting day-to-day was when he worked on the helicopters, but what was most rewarding for him was the relationships he built with other people in the fire service, elected officials, and those in the community.
“It’s been a blessing to have such a long career at a really iconic and proud agency you know when I go back to my early days I really only wanted to work for this agency and put all my eggs in one basket despite what some people told me to do and not to do it worked very well,” Estes said in an interview.
Estes has been at the head of his unit throughout several Northern California wildfires, including the Caldor, the August Complex, and the Camp Fire, which destroyed his home in the town of Paradise.
Estes said his advice to his successor is to always focus on the people in every emergency and every interaction.
“The best thing you can do is spend your time, you know, building that investment and the people around you paying that debt back to the agency that’s invested so much in the venue over the years, so that when it’s time to go, you know you have a system that’s hopefully better than what you were,” Estes said.
After he retires, Estes said he looks forward to spending more time playing music and focusing on his art.
Here are some of Estes’s artworks that have been shared over to FOX40.
Adoreil Ayoubgoulan
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