Dear Vacaville Residents and Businesses,

2023 proved to be busy, full of exciting events and milestones. The Vacaville Fire Department rose to the challenge and continued to provide superior service to our community while remaining focused on our mission, “to reduce the impact of emergencies in a caring and competent manner.”

In 2023, the department responded to another all-time high of 13,010 incidents, of which 9,635 were medical emergencies resulting in our ambulances transporting over 8,150 patients. Our Fire Prevention and Code Enforcement folks were busy as well, completing 505 plan reviews, 1,657 fire and new construction inspections, as well as nearly 1,500 code compliance cases. Year after year, these numbers keep going up. What does all this mean? It means the Vacaville Fire Department is a busy department and we’re in constant contact with our community members.

Last April, we were able to hire our first group of ten apprentices into our in-house Apprentice Program. I am happy to report that two of our apprentices have already been promoted to the rank of firefighter. We look forward to more homegrown talent produced by our program.

Vacaville Fire added 15 new firefighters and firefighter/paramedics to our ranks in 2023. Academy 23-01, with 11 recruits, started their 16 weeks of training in January and graduated in April. Additionally, we hired three lateral firefighter/paramedics during the year.

We had four retirements in 2023: Engineer Josh LaRoe, Captain Geoff Jeppson, Battalion Chief Matt Lage, and Battalion Chief Dave Rogers. Congratulations to our most recent retirees! We wish them all a healthy and happy retirement. We will miss you all.

We had several promotions in 2023: Fire Captain Joe Shorum, Engineer Brian Whitley, Engineer Dave Wonnell, Firefighter Bailey Erbland, and Firefighter Kitsia Pelayo. Congratulations to all on your well-deserved promotions. 

Thank you for taking time to review our 2023 Annual Report and learn a little more about the Vacaville Fire Department. I am honored to serve the 102,000 residents of Vacaville alongside the wonderful, dedicated group of people that make up the Vacaville Fire Department. I look back at 2023 with pride and look forward to what 2024 will bring us.

Respectfully,

Kristian Concepcion

Fire Chief