It’s safe to say there’s no legislator more familiar with battling fires against the Santa Ana winds than state Sen. Kelly Seyarto.

Sameea Kamal

CalMatters

He’s one of just a few former firefighters in the Legislature’s history, and the only former career firefighter currently in office, according to the California State Library (Current Assemblymember Heath Flora, a Republican from Ripon, worked three summers as a firefighter and volunteered for another 15).

The Republican from Murrieta spent 35 years in the field — starting as a firefighter and paramedic for the Inglewood Fire Department and retiring as a battalion chief for the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

During that time, he was assigned to various fires throughout Southern California, and led a 20-person strike team in the 2007 Canyon Fire that burned one of the areas affected by the recent Palisades fire.

Still, when it came to special session bills in the Senate related to the recent fires, Seyarto said he was pretty much left out of the planning. Meetings to discuss the Legislature’s initial response were limited to Democrats.

“For Pete’s sake, folks, I’ve been in the fire service for 35 years,” Seyarto said recently on the Senate floor, where he voted in favor of two bills to fund the fire recovery. “I implore you, no more caucus meetings to come up with a Senate Democrat plan, or Assembly Democrat plan. … We need a plan from all of us to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire, a Democrat from Santa Rosa, did not respond to a request for comment.

Chris Micheli, a longtime lobbyist, said Democratic leaders in the Senate typically pick a handful of legislators to work on large issues like wildfires. “Those working groups don’t include Republicans. But of course, Republicans can introduce bills of their own, and can obviously provide input on legislation.”

Tim Edwards, president of the union representing state firefighters, said — no matter which party — it helps to have someone in the Legislature who has worked in the trade, so they can communicate issues to other lawmakers, such as Seyarto’s support on a recent proposal to transition seasonal firefighters into year-round employees.

“Public safety is a unique thing, so in order to have someone that’s actually worked the job to walk you through and explain things is really great to have on the legislation,” he said.

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Public Service: From Fires to Government

Seyarto, 65, was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley and wanted to be a doctor growing up. But he didn’t have the best grades, so a firefighter neighbor encouraged him to try out the paramedic path instead.

During his decades as a firefighter, there were plenty of memorable moments. He doesn’t like to talk about the bad ones: “There are too many of those. It’s usually when people are dying, and you can’t do anything about it.”

He prefers to think about the ones where he was able to save lives. One was an apartment building fire in the late 1980s or early 1990s, he said, where 40 people had jumped from the second story to escape flames.

“I wound up having to figure out how to manage 40 patients that … had broken legs and hips and cracked heads,” he said. “We didn’t really have a system yet, and so I kind of figured out a streamlined system on how to get them all through.”

That inspired conversations within L.A. County’s fire department to create a formalized system, now known as the Simple Triage And Rapid Treatment, or START, system.

“That’s where my mind kind of goes, is how to organize something quickly and then make it go through a quick process and get it done,” he said. “That’s why it’s so frustrating being in the Legislature, because you see a problem and you think, ‘Okay, well, let’s see, we can do this, this and this, and then let’s get it going. And it doesn’t go like that.”

Seyarto stepped into elected office when he ran for Murrieta City Council in 1997 while still working for the fire department. He served on the city council until 2006, then stepped away to spend more time with his wife and three daughters. He retired from firefighting in 2015 and returned to the council in 2016, serving a total of four stints as mayor.

In 2020, he won a seat in the state Assembly, where he served two years before switching to the Senate. He now serves on seven committees and is vice chair of four of them: appropriations, natural resources, public safety and housing.

Seyarto doesn’t focus on wildfire legislation as a state senator — he says he prefers to apply what he learned in the fire service to various policy areas. He has only introduced a few bills related to wildfires since 2021, none of which has passed.

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The Legislature’s Role

So how does Seyarto think the Legislature should approach wildfires?

Seyarto said the Legislature’s most impactful role would be to pursue a comprehensive statewide strategy focused on prevention, response and recovery instead of the piecemeal approach the state often takes with legislation targeted toward a specific community impacted by a fire.

He said a comprehensive approach would require a bipartisan effort that brings together experts in the various issues involved: housing, insurance and local governments.

“We have to figure those things out, and we can’t figure them out if we’re having Democrat caucus discussions only, or Republican caucus discussions only,” he said. “This is a whole legislature (joined by) experts in the field type of issue.”

In general, Seyarto said stopping a fire once it has started is challenging. That’s why risk management is key, he says: identifying fire hazard zones and hiring enough staff to clear brush or manage controlled burns that can prevent fires from starting or spreading.

He also introduced a bill last month that would allow evacuation routes in fire hazard zones to be eligible for funds under Proposition 4, which voters approved last year to fund climate-related projects.

“It’s all about saving those people first, and so having evacuation routes … and not allowing a bureaucratic structure to obstruct the process,” he said. “It’s that kind of bureaucratic process, especially when it relates to public safety that we really need to kind of eliminate … so we don’t keep repeating the same catastrophes, one after another, after another.”

About the Author

Sameea Kamal covers politics for CalMatters, with a focus on democracy, representation and accountability.

About CalMatters

CalMatters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom committed to explaining California policy and politics.