The flag was slowly lowered, folded and presented to Fire Chief Jeff Willis as his end of watch was celebrated Wednesday, June 11, at Station 281. Willis is retiring after 41 years serving in Big Bear Valley. He began in May 1984. His last day will be June 30, 2025.
In his tenure, Willis has been a firefighter, engineer, captain, division chief, assistant chief and fire marshal. He retires as a fire chief, the youngest to serve in that position at the Big Bear City Fire Department starting at 43 years of age.
A crowd of family, colleagues, dignitaries and well wishers lauded Willis for his service to the Big Bear Valley as the last call came over the firehouse speakers.
“Know that the department will continue down the path of success much like your personal success and dedication during your 41 years of duty, honor and commitment to the community,” the dispatcher read over Confire, the communications center. “Confire will now show you available for further duties of your choice. Happy retirement, Chief Willis.”
The tones that you hear at the fire station tell the firefighters when it’s time to go somewhere, according to Chardelle Smith, Big Bear Fire Authority board secretary.
“The final tone is the ringing of the bell,” Smith said. The honor guard rang the bell three times. “It’s his (Willis’s) final tone as a firefighter. It signifies end of service,” Smith explained.
Willis has lived in Big Bear Valley for 58 years, attending North Shore Elementary School and Big Bear Middle School and graduating from Big Bear High School in 1984. He was hired that year by the Big Bear City Fire Department as a paid call firefighter.
In fact, Willis was so eager to pursue a career with the fire department that he applied for and received a promotion to be a full-time fire engineer in 1986. That promotion lasted about two weeks. It turned out that, for insurance purposes, a fire engineer had to be 21 years old. Willis was 20. He had to wait another six months, until December of that year, to get the promotion.
Willis’s family background in general engineering construction served him well. He drove and operated heavy equipment at a young age, a skill set that aligned well with the fire service.
After attending college in the Inland Empire, Willis added courses offered through the State Fire Marshals Office.
Willis earned some of the highest honors, certificates and qualifications available, including chief officer, fire instructor, fire investigator and fire marshal, as well as accolades from local, county, state and professional associations. He became president of the Big Bear City Professional Firefighters Association in 1998.
As division chief in 2003, after the Old Fire destroyed 993 homes in the San Bernardino Mountains, Willis’ major area of focus was community risk reduction. This led to the creation of the Community Fire Safe Council, Community Wildfire Protection Planning and Community Risk Reduction Planning.
He got hundreds of thousands of grant dollars to reduce community risk and is credited as an innovator of fuels reduction and land management.
In 2004, Willis increased his responsibilities within the state mutual aid system. After more training, he became a qualified strike team leader, task force leader and division group supervisor.
Willis is assigned as command staff for California Interagency Incident Management Team Six. In this capacity, he is responsible for unity of command among cooperating agencies as the team liaison.
Beginning in 2005 as assistant chief, Willis oversaw several initiatives to improve firefighter safety. He led efforts to modernize and upgrade tools and technology, including 800 radios, 900MHz pagers, cellphones and computers. New technology was also introduced for cut and rescue tools, hose nozzles, portable lighting and thermal imaging equipment.
Willis was able to buy much of this expensive new equipment through grant funding.
Willis’ training and early life experiences came full circle in 2010. He had been appointed fire chief in 2007 when funds were tight. Now the restraints were lifted and Willis was able to use his early construction background, saving Big Bear Valley several hundred thousand dollars, to build the Paradise Training Center, a new shop and garage to house reserve apparatus and equipment.
Also beginning in 2010, Willis was elected to serve as a board member for the Fire Districts Association of California, leading to his interest in legislative policy that affects hundreds of fire districts throughout California. He was appointed by the board to serve on the joint legislative task force representing the California Fire Chiefs Association and the Fire Districts of California Association, where he reviewed hundreds of state Assembly and Senate bills.
Willis became fire chief of the Big Bear Lake Fire Protection District and Big Bear Community Services District in July 2011, when the two organizations entered into a shared fire chief service agreement.
This agreement was one of the first steps that led to full consolidation of the departments. The Big Bear Fire Authority was created as a new public safety entity in July 2012.
After nearly 10 years of apparatus purchase deferral, Willis implemented a three-year plan in July 2020 to replace an aging fleet of fire trucks and engines.
“He’s my first fire chief,” said Smith. “It’s just been a pleasure working with him. His knowledge is amazing.”