Lakeport Fire hires new chief
- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The Lakeport Fire Protection District is preparing to welcome its new chief.
The district’s board of directors announced it has appointed Salt Lake City Battalion Chief Jeffrey James Thomas to serve as the new Lakeport Fire chief, effective March 29.
Thomas will succeed Rick Bergem, who is retiring after more than 40 years with the agency.
In Thomas’ hiring, the 127-year-old department is welcoming its first Black fire chief.
Thomas also is believed to be the first Black fire executive officer to serve in a Lake County agency.
He’s used to breaking barriers. When he became battalion chief at Salt Lake City Fire in 2005, he was the first Black firefighter to hold the role and the first Black fire officer in the state of Utah.
Thomas was born and grew up in California. He was raised in Richmond and had what he described in a 2020 interview as a middle-class upbringing, with a mom who was a nurse, a dad who was a truck driver, four brothers and a sister.
He left California to play football on a scholarship for the University of Utah.
Thomas began his work in the fire service after becoming interested in it thanks to an older brother who was a firefighter for the city of San Jose, and who later retired as one of that fire department’s highest-ranking officers.
He has served with the Salt Lake City Fire Department for 36 years and is reported to be an avid outdoorsman.
“Chief Thomas is looking forward to returning home and serving the community of Lakeport,” Lakeport Fire said in its Tuesday night statement on his hiring.
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