Mark Hartwig remembers working his way through college as a zoology student studying the mating habits of the white-headed woodpecker. He paid for school by working as an emergency medical technician.
One day in Wrightwood, Hartwig saw the fire station there and volunteered. That marked the end of his journey toward becoming a doctor and the true beginning of a long firefighting career.
“If it wasn’t love at walking through the door, it was shortly thereafter that I realized it was my calling,” Hartwig said Tuesday.
Hartwig, the San Bernardino County fire chief, will take that passion to Santa Barbara County, where he was announced Tuesday as the new fire chief. His last day in San Bernardino County will be Feb. 15. He’ll start on the coast Feb. 18.
Hartwig, 55, a firefighter for 27 years, has been fire chief since 2011. He was voted the 2017 California Fire Chief of the Year by the California State Fire Chiefs’ Association and was appointed by then-Gov. Jerry Brown to the California Commission on Emergency Medical Services.