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Congratulations to Fire Chief Howard Wood on Retirement!
VACAVILLE — Howard Wood once debated whether to become a sheriff's deputy or follow his father, Howard J. Wood, into the fire service.
On Aug. 14, Wood, who worked 14 years for PG&E before finding his true calling, will retire after nearly 60 years in the fire service, starting as a volunteer and working his way up the ranks until he was hired as the chief of the Vacaville Fire Protection District in October 1981.
As a senior at Vacaville High School, and a member of the newly formed junior firefighters program, Wood was teamed with a district volunteer and went out as the fire that would become known as "Black Thursday" ignited the English Hills.
"We left the fire station and went out on Browns Valley Road, and there were houses over there,” Wood said in an October 2020 interview. “By the time we did the U-turn, the fire blew right by us.”
The blaze burned 12.5 square miles (8,000 acres) in five hours, threatening Vacaville, before it was stopped at Nut Tree. Because the hills were not as populated then, only 14 houses and 45 other structures were lost.
Wood, now 75, said the housing development in the hills today is the biggest change and challenge to fighting fires in the area.
The LNU Lightning Complex fires, which started Aug. 18, 2020, destroyed 309 homes. It burned more than 78 square miles (50,000 acres). Two lives were lost.
Just weeks after the fire was extinguished, Wood sat in his Vine Street firehouse office, only a quarter-mile from where he grew up on an apricot farm, and said he had never been part of anything like it, and that very early it became clear the mission was not to save property, but to save lives.
Wood's departure will mean a change to the district administration, and could spark the development of a long-discussed countywide fire protection district for the unincorporated areas of Solano.
Calvert said the district is not filling the chief's post. Instead, two deputy chiefs, father and son, Rick Kuntz and Dave Kuntz, respectively, will run the department. There will be a couple of new battalion chiefs added to the ranks as well.
"We are working with the county and we want to see where the county wants to go," Calvert said. "Basically, we are interested in developing ... a Solano County fire protections district, and if (the county) is going to do that, they will need to have a chief's position and now they have one."
Calvert emphasized that nothing is imminent.
Dennis Fogleman, who has been a volunteer with the department since 1995, is serving as interim chief. He referred all questions to Calvert, as did other district personnel.
"I have nothing but respect for that man," Fogleman said of Wood, calling him his mentor in the fire service.
After nearly 60 years as a firefighter, the last 40 as a fire chief, Vacaville Fire Protection District’s Howard Wood is calling it a career.
Come Aug. 14, Wood — likely the longest Vaca District firefighter ever — will hang up his turnouts for good.
It’s just time, explained the chief, who spent his entire career at the same department. The profession has been more than a job, Wood said Friday. It’s been his life — and in his blood.
His dad. Howard Wood senior, was chief at Vaca District back in the day. His brother-in-law, Bob Powell, is a retired fire chief.
As a kid, Wood wasn’t sure what he wanted to be. But his family lived a stone’s throw from Vaca District headquarters on Vine Street and at night, they’d watch fires blooming in the nearby mountains and see caravans of police and fire vehicles responding.
His mom, the chief said, was an original Fire Belle. The women’s auxiliary group would make sandwiches for the firefighters upon their return from their assignments, he recalled.
In 1963, the 16-year-old Vacaville High School student became a junior cadet and a “sleeper” with the Fire Department.
“There were no 911 dispatchers,” he shared. “That was us.”
The sleepers would answer the calls and respond to them, catching rides on wildland engines.
“The Fire Department is a family so we had a good time,” he emphasized.
Often, he’d ride along to calls with his dad, who truly loved being a firefighter.
“It wasn’t about getting paid. It was about the work,” the chief said.
His parents believed in the field so much that they donated the land where the current firehouse, built by volunteers, sits.
Wood later went to work for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., like his dad once had, for 14 years, while still volunteering with the District. He had also been a reserve deputy with the Solano County Sheriff’s Office for a time, saying he was grateful for the experience as he realized policing was not for him.
Upon his retirement from PG&E, he was hired full-time with Vaca District and worked his way up to chief.
Along the way, he experienced some hairy situations, like the time he and Jimmie McCants Sr. got caught in a blaze on Alamo Hill off Cherry Glen Road. The truck wouldn’t start and McCants get out of the vehicle, Wood remembered, and then the fire flashed over them, injuring McCants.
“That’s a memory that always clung with me,” he said.
Recently, the LNU Lightning Complex Fire took up prime real estate in his mind. Two people died, and so many lives were threatened. They did the best they could, Wood said, adding, “I don’t know if there’s anything I could have done differently.”
Good memories include the station being built, consolidating with the Elmira Fire Department, the installation of the Lake Solano station, all the firefighters he’s worked with over the years and the outpouring of support from the community.
“Everyone’s trying to help us,” he said, “It’s nice that people wave when they see us.”
The job, Wood said, is simply about people. Always has been, always will be.
“It’s taking care of the people of our district,” he continued. “It just being open to helping people.
“My policy here is if we receive calls and it’s not ours, we (find a way to) help them. We don’t just say ‘wrong number’ and hang up.”
It just takes a little time to find out what others need and refer them if need be, the chief said.
Next up for Wood and his wife, Laura, is travel.
“We’ll try to get to Disneyland as much as we can,” he advised. The couple will also spend time with their daughters and their grandchildren, and do anything else that sounds like fun.
It’s been a blessed journey, Wood said, that’s nearly over.
No replacement has yet been named.
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