RANCHO CUCAMONGA – Following a 24-year career with the Rancho Cucamonga Fire Department, Mike Bell has been promoted to fire chief, leading an organization of 125 employees. Bell, 48, served as deputy fire chief under Peter Bryan, who retired in September. Bell’s new post comes at a time when some changes are on the Fire Department’s horizon. In December, the city will implement a new Emergency Medical Dispatch system with Rialto-based CONFIRE. The department will welcome four new firefighters, also in December, as several longtime employees retire.
Plans to build a new station on Hellman Avenue and Hillside Road are under way with an expected completion date at the end of 2011. According to city leaders, the department is in safe hands as it faces these changes. City Manager Jack Lam, who made the decision to promote Bell, said the Rancho Cucamonga resident makes a great chief because he is patient, has strong leadership skills and is “always thinking of the future.” Councilman Sam Spagnolo, a former firefighter and a longtime fire union president, called Bell a “people person.” “I remember the day Mike came to work. Just listening to him talk, I thought, `Who’s this young skinny looking kid and what’s he doing at my fire house?’ ” he said. Spagnolo said Bell’s leadership skills were evident early on.”He didn’t have a side whether it was labor or management,” Spagnolo said. “Hewas always concerned with what was best for the organization.”Born in Glendora and a graduate of Apple Valley High School, Bell’s career path nearly went in a different direction.Bell is the son of longtime newspaperman, Bill Bell, and studied journalism at Cal Poly Pomona. He worked for his father briefly when Bill Bell operated several high desert newspapers. The aspiring sports reporter rewrote news releases and then penned his own articles, getting paid 50 cents per column inch.But lack of funds made Bell leave college prematurely. He took interest in the fire service after a close friend went that route. Two months into fire service courses at Victor Valley College, he netted a starting position in the Apple Valley Fire Department.Bell, who had never rode on a fire engine before, helped fight a hay truck fire on his first day on the job.”I spent hours and hours ripping up hay bales and loved every second of it,” Bell said. “I saw it right then this was gonna be a career. It just clicked real quick.”For a summer, Bell worked for the Bureau of Land Management, a federal agency with a jurisdiction of the High Desert from the Cajon Pass to Las Vegas. It was a vast expanse of desert, where fires start and die quickly.”We’d drive two, three hours before finding the fire,” Bell recalled. “It was before GPS. Sometimes it’d be out by the time we got there. We’d look … OK, and drive back for another three hours.” After working for the Banning Fire Department for two years, he got hired by the city in 1985. He was brought on board by former Fire Chief Dennis Michael, who is currently a councilman. Michael called Bell an “excellent communicator,” and the department’s “go-to guy.”The former fire chief recalled Bell turning down a promotion to be a fire engineer because Bell felt he was not ready.”That is indicative of Mike’s character. He’s the only employee I know that turned down his promotion because of his desire to do something that he had not completed,” Michael said. “I always, always remembered that with tremendous amount of fondness.”With a thick mustache and a thin physique, Bell is known as a family guy who is active in the church. He and his wife, Diane, raised three daughters, now ages 19 to 24, in this city. One of the organizations Bell is also very active in is Firefighters for Christ. The organization gave him the opportunity to travel to New York City, where he provided emotional support to the first responders following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Bell is a listener and a talker and when it comes to a conversation about the fire service, he’s the latter.”It’s such a challenge. When that alarm goes off, you never know what’s on the other end,” Bell said. “What you do know is somebody’s having a pretty bad day.”There’s something special about being on the other end of that call … and no matter what it is, by the end of the day, you’ve done something to make it better.”Bell is the sixth fire chief since the Fire Department, formerly known as the Foothill Fire Protection District, was formed in 1975. It’s a position that he has easily eased into but not without a sense of disbelief.”I did not walk into this career thinking I was going to be a fire chief,” Bell said. “You start off as a rookie fireman up in the desert riding your motorcycle to the fire station before the engine leaves.”Here I am. Who would’ve thought?”
Story by: Contra Costa Times
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