NORTH COAST, Calif. — Cal Fire Director/Fire Chief Joe Tyler has appointed Matt Ryan as the next Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit chief, effective Monday, July 15.

Ryan, 42, takes over as the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit, or LNU, chief following Mike Marcucci’s retirement on June 28.

Ryan has intricate knowledge of the unit, having served the entirety of his 24-year Cal Fire career in LNU, and has worked in all five of its divisions since joining the agency as a firefighter in 2001.

“We are excited to have Chief Ryan in this leadership role for the Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit,” said Cal Fire Northern Region Chief George Morris III. “He has comprehensive knowledge of the region, its vast range of vegetation types, political climates, population centers and has fought through its dynamic fire history over the course of his 24-year Cal Fire career.”

In addition to his unit chief duties, Ryan also assumes command as fire chief for the Napa County Fire Department and the South Lake County Fire Protection District.

“I grew up here, have been serving our communities for the past 24 years and have seen the many partnerships evolve as we all come together to work towards keeping our communities safe,” Ryan said. “It will take the continued collaboration on every level, investments in our people, resources and technology that will allow us to fulfill our mission.”

Ryan has served as an incident commander-trainee for Cal Fire’s Incident Management Team 2, is a Type 1 Operations section chief and a qualified air tactical group supervisor.

He has served on many cadres, including being the cadre lead for the Northern Region C-234 firing operations class.

He most recently served as the unit’s deputy chief of state operations since September 2023.

In that role he oversaw LNU’s operations across the six North Bay counties that make up the Unit, the Emergency Command Center in St. Helena as well as the aviation and camp programs.

The year prior, Ryan was the assistant chief of LNU Central Division Operations with responsibilities encompassing training, safety, fleet and capital outlay.

From 2019 to 2022 he was a battalion chief for the training bureau with oversight of all training and EMS operations for the Unit and the Napa County Fire Department.

From 2011 to 2019 Ryan served in the rank of fire captain, working out of Cal Fire stations in Petaluma, Leesville, Clearlake Oaks and inside the LNU Training Bureau, and was a rotational helitack captain at Boggs Mountain.

As a firefighter he worked at Stations 38 in Gordon Valley and 24 at Spanish Flat, in addition to being on the Boggs Mountain Helitack crew.

In 2007 he promoted to the rank of fire apparatus engineer where for four years he was
assigned to the Schedule A program at Station 12 in Yountville.

Ryan, a Sonoma County resident, grew up in the Sonoma Valley and graduated from Sonoma High School in 2000.

He holds an Associate of Science Degree from Butte College.