People / Spotlight on achievers : Fire Chief to Head State Association

Jeff Bowman, who has headed the Anaheim Fire Department since 1986, will soon begin a one-year term as president of the California Fire Chiefs Assn.

The swearing-in ceremony will be during the group’s annual statewide conference, set for Feb. 3-6 in Anaheim.

Among speakers during the four-day conference will be Oklahoma City Fire Chief Gary Marrs, who will discuss how his department responded to the deadly terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building last April.

“Every city in the country could be faced with terrorist activity,” Bowman said. “It’s important to hear the lessons the Oklahoma City Fire Department learned from that incident.”

One of the toughest challenges faced by Marrs, Bowman said, was coordinating all the federal, state and local agencies that rushed into Oklahoma City after the bombing, while at the same time handling numerous requests by the media.

“It was just mind-boggling trying to deal with all those people coming into their community,” Bowman said, “and having to deal with them at a moment’s notice.”

Also on the program will be a report on the devastating earthquake that struck last year in Kobe, Japan, and an update on legislation that will be considered this year in Sacramento.

Bowman’s duties during his term as state president will include serving as spokesman for California’s fire chiefs on public safety issues and other matters. He has been a member of the association’s legislative analysis committee for the past 10 years.

Bowman, a native of Akron, Ohio, joined the Anaheim Fire Department in 1973 and was promoted to paramedic three years later. He became a captain in 1979, a battalion chief in 1983 and a division chief in 1985.

Bowman is a past president of the Orange County Fire Chiefs Assn. He is also a director of Anaheim Memorial Hospital and a former president of the Boys and Girls Club of Anaheim.