Dennis Rein, who has been with the Moraga-Orinda Fire District since 2013, is stepping down to spend more time with his 7-month-old granddaughter and to find new ways to promote wildfire safety. Rein, who started with MOFD as emergency preparedness coordinator and later moved to Prescribed Fire Program Manager, has been a familiar face of MOFD to the public.

    Born and raised in Lafayette, Rein was employed by the East Bay Regional Park District for 23 years, as a police officer, firefighter, fire captain and fire chief. He has also worked for the Suisun Fire Protection District, The East Bay Municipal Utility District, the U.S. Department of the Interior, and as a Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Consultant.

    In an interview with The Lamorinda Weekly, Rein said that his interest moving forward is to stay involved in wildfire mitigation and prescribed burns as an advocate and a facilitator, perhaps in the private sector. In a number of California counties, landowners have experienced the devastating effects of wildfires and are interested in reducing the risks of property loss.

    Rein says that his goal is to promote prescribed fire as a land management tool. He believes that currently there are plenty of people who are interested in TELSA (Tool for Exploratory Landscape Scenario Analyses), a spatially explicit, strategic planning tool developed by ESSA Technologies Ltd. 

    A group of friends and supporters from a variety of organizations honored Rein at an informal gathering at Canyon Club in Moraga on Oct. 6. Those in attendance included members of MOFD and MOFD volunteers as well as others including Lamorinda CERT, the Lamorinda Area Radio Interest Group, Rescue One, and the Moraga Orinda Firewise Network.

    Bruce Macler, a volunteer in the Lamorinda emergency preparedness community said, “I appreciate all that Dennis has done for the community, in terms of his leadership in emergency preparedness, both as a volunteer and as a professional. He has advanced where we stand in preparedness, especially in communications and wildfire mitigation.” 

    Macler added, “I hope that he stays involved in the Lamorinda Emergency Preparedness community because his knowledge of our area and fire behavior is so vast.” Macler noted that Rein has often served on incident management teams around the state. “His skills as a liaison officer and a public information officer are incomparable.”

    Fire Safe Moraga-Orinda Executive Director Rob Schroeder said, ”I will really miss working with Dennis. Not only is he incredibly knowledgeable, but he is a really nice person.  He embodies the best of what a public safety professional should be.”