Tony Balbiani loves what he does for a living and it shows immediately with a smile on his face. At 39, he’s been a fire fighter nearly all of his adult life and he couldn’t imagine doing anything else — except maybe becoming fire chief.
As of Jan. 1, Balbiani has been the Indian Valley Fire Department’s new chief. “Tony is already doing a fantastic job,” said Indian Valley Community Services District General Manager Chris Gallagher.
“I wanted a challenge: modernize Indian Valley Fire Department, but keep with some of the traditions,’ said Balbiani.
Balbiani’s career in fire fighting began in 1998. After a year of studying landscape architecture his freshman year of college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, he headed home to Santa Clara and enrolled in Mission College’s fire program and its EMT program instead.