{"id":800676,"date":"2019-10-24T13:33:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-24T19:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=373469"},"modified":"2019-10-25T09:22:11","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T15:22:11","slug":"summit-fire-chief-jeff-berino-named-colorado-chief-of-the-year-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/summit-fire-chief-jeff-berino-named-colorado-chief-of-the-year-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Summit Fire Chief Jeff Berino named Colorado Chief of the Year, announces retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino was named Colorado Fire Chief of the Year during a ceremony Wednesday, Oct. 23, in Keystone.<\/strong>
Courtesy Summit Fire & EMS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 The Colorado State Fire Chiefs named Summit Fire and EMS Chief Jeff Berino the Colorado Fire Chief of the Year during a ceremony Wednesday in Keystone. Berino publicly announced his retirement the same night.<\/p>\n

The Colorado State Fire Chiefs, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving cooperation among the state\u2019s fire and emergency service agencies, hosted the 2019 Fire Leadership Challenge in Keystone this week. Given the conference\u2019s location, it was fitting that Berino received the award, though it was a surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt completely blindsided me,\u201d Berino said about learning he\u2019d be given the honor. \u201cI got a call from the state government \u2014 the Colorado Department of Public Safety \u2014 advising me I\u2019d won. It really took me by surprise. It\u2019s a true honor. It\u2019s been 40 years of a lot of hard work up here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, Berino has helped guide Summit Fire through successful mergers with the Summit County Ambulance Service and Copper Mountain Fire. Under Berino, the fire district also completed the construction of a new administration building, achieved an international professional accreditation and oversaw a number of major emergency responses \u2014 including last year\u2019s Buffalo Mountain Fire.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m usually not shy, but I\u2019m close to being speechless,\u201d Berino said upon accepting the award from Mike Morgan, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control. Berino took the opportunity to thank his staff, the district\u2019s board of directors, his family and a number of professional mentors who helped him in his journey as fire chief, including George Mazzotti, the award\u2019s namesake.<\/p>\n

For Berino, the award will serve as a fitting cap on a career in public safety. In a news release Wednesday night, Berino announced he\u2019s planning to retire in July 2020.<\/p>\n

Berino, 62, began his career as a seasonal wildland firefighter in Massachusetts in 1977. He moved in 1980 to Summit County, where he started as a volunteer firefighter with the Frisco Fire Department, an early precursor to the now consolidated Summit Fire and EMS.<\/p>\n

Berino was named deputy chief in 2005 following the merger of three districts into Lake Dillon Fire Rescue and officially took over the role of chief in 2015.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino accepts a congratulations from Mike Morgan, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control, after being named Fire Chief of the Year on Wednesday, Oct. 23, in Keystone. <\/strong>
Courtesy Summit Fire & EMS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Outside of Summit County, Berino also served as a state-certified incident commander for the Northwest Colorado All Hazards Type III incident-management team and for the Upper Colorado River Federal Type III wildfire team, taking the lead in recent years on emergency responses including numerous regional wildfires and a salmonella outbreak in the Alamosa drinking water.<\/p>\n

Berino is also a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer
\nProgram of the National Fire Academy, has served as a college instructor in the
\nfield of fire sciences, and has worked part-time as a senior fire investigator
\nwith Pie Forensic Engineering and Consulting of Arvada.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverseeing now about 100 employees in an organization that has seen ever-rising call volume, Chief Berino has served with distinction and exhibited inspiring leadership qualities, including, perhaps most prominently, his good nature, respect and support from the communities he serves, and his ability to see the big picture,\u201d Summit Fire Board President Jim Cox wrote about Berino.<\/p>\n

During his career, Berino also received life-saving awards
\nfrom the Summit County Sheriff\u2019s Office and the Summit County Ambulance
\nService, and was awarded the Lake Dillon Fire Medal of Valor for his response to
\nthe Ophir Mountain wildfire in 2005.<\/p>\n

After a lifetime of fighting to keep the Summit County community safe, Berino said it was time to slow things down.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
Chief Jeff Berino oversees a response to a multivehicle crash Interstate 70 earlier this month. <\/strong>
Courtesy Summit Fire & EMS<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt came after a lot of deliberation,\u201d Berino said about his decision. \u201cThis May will be 40 years. During that time, I\u2019ve gone through six mergers, new buildings, an accreditation, the merger with the ambulance service and more. It\u2019s time to pass the baton.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been a true pleasure serving Summit County. It\u2019s gone
\nby awful quick. I\u2019ve hopefully made a difference, and it\u2019s been an honor to
\nserve this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berino lives in Frisco with his wife, Janis, and said they have no intention of leaving Summit County just yet. Berino said he\u2019s looking forward to getting to ski on powder days or go on a bike ride during summer without having to worry (too much) about the fire danger.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to enjoy Summit County,\u201d Berino said. \u201cI just want to enjoy it for the reasons most of us came out here, to have a little more time to spend outside. So we\u2019ve got no plans on moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berino said he also wouldn\u2019t be quitting the industry altogether, noting he\u2019ll continue to work part-time as a fire investigator for insurance companies around the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be here without the outstanding support of my
\nstaff, my family, the board of directors and this community,\u201d Berino said. \u201cI\u2019m
\nproud of Summit County. The people here have a vision that\u2019s allowed for
\nmergers and consolidations. We\u2019re a community that\u2019s not afraid of the word change,
\nand I admire that.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summit Fire & EMS Chief Jeff Berino was named Colorado Fire Chief of the Year during a ceremony Wednesday, Oct. 23, in Keystone.Courtesy Summit Fire & EMS FRISCO \u2014 The Colorado State Fire Chiefs named Summit Fire and EMS Chief Jeff Berino the Colorado Fire Chief of the Year during a ceremony Wednesday in Keystone. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800676","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 13:14:16","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":800709,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800676\/revisions\/800709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}