Dan Hurlock is Downey's newest fire chief

Dan Hurlock, a 1983 Downey High graduate, will lead the Downey Fire Department beginning next month. (Photo by Alex Dominguez)

DOWNEY — Dan Hurlock will officially take over as chief of the Downey Fire Department next month.

Hurlock is no stranger to Downey, as he is a homegrown member of Downey’s community already.

After graduating from Downey High School in 1983, he would go on to Long Beach City College and get his degree in electricity before transferring to Cal State Long Beach and earning a degree in Business Management.

His career in fire fighting would not begin until 1997 when he was invited on a Downey Fire ride-along.

“I went on a ride along; loved it,” said Hurlock. “I saw how much he loved his job, and the other guys how much they loved their job. So, I found this is right up my alley.”

He was 32 years old when he began at the academy. He would later be hired by Downey Fire in 2000.

“I got involved early with teaching community CPR and first aid,” said Hurlock. “I got involved with the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), teaching there, and became the coordinator for that program.

In 2012, Hurlock was promoted to Captain. A subsequent promotion to Battalion Chief came in 2014.

With the announcement of current Chief Mark Gillespie’s retirement, Hurlock will now take the reins at an exciting and critical time for both the department and the city.

Hurlock inherits four newly remodeled fire stations, two of which are complete and already moved into.

“The city definitely has taken care of our facilities with their commitment to remodeling all four stations,” said Hurlock. “It’s definitely exciting. I got hired by the fire department almost 21 years ago, and they were talking about replacing facilities then.”

“To live in those facilities for 20 years, it’s definitely exciting to have brand new facilities…The new facilities have definitely addressed some long overdue needs that needed to be addressed, and I’m grateful and excited for it.”

He also steps in at a time where the city looks to navigate its way through the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our operations have changed since the pandemic hit,” said Hurlock. “It’s required us to stock up on hard-to-get supplies, and make sure that we’re going to be covered for as long as this pandemic lasts.”

“It’s caused us to kind of rethink how we do things…”

Hurlock says that with many facility-needs now addressed, his goals for the department lie within more employee needs and development.

“Some of those things would be personal development in terms of leadership and professional growth, and succession planning,” said Hurlock. “One of my goals is to implement training that leads to that, so that we have qualified people that can back-fill all the ranks as people move on and retire, and that they be skilled and qualified.”

In fact, Hurlock will likely be spending much of his first few months as chief by manufacturing his own leadership team and chain of command.

“The fire chief is leaving. I’m going to be filling his spot, which creates a vacancy in the battalion chief rank,” said Hurlock. “Our assistant chief is going to be leaving; he announced his retirement at the end of the year also. That creates another vacancy in the battalion chief rank. There’s potential the other two battalion chiefs could retire…I don’t know what their plans are yet, but I’m sure I’ll be finding out soon.”

“There’s potential for four promotions in the Battalion Chiefs’ rank. If that happens, the people who fill the battalion chiefs are captains, so that means there’s going to be holes in the captains’ ranks…I’m going to be busy filling a lot of vacancies that are created through attrition and people retiring.”

On a personal level, Hurlock says his goal is to be “the same person I’ve always been.”

“I’ve had an attitude of service basically my whole life,” said Hurlock. “That didn’t change when I got into the fire service; obviously the fire service is a service organization. My goal and my message is to continue providing the level of emergency service for the citizens that they expect and they deserve.”

“My policy is open door; I welcome anybody to come in and chit chat and have a conversation with me. The only way you solve problems or realize that there’s an issue is by talking about them, so I welcome open conversation with anybody who needs information from here.”