Drew Smith has been a member of the Los Angeles (LA) County Fire Department since 1987. Assistant Chief Smith is an advanced wildfire behavior analyst and has fought and led the response to Santa Ana wind-driven fires for over 30 years. Smith is highly adept at working in extreme-stress environments, making tactically based fire suppression decisions to support incident commanders and operations sections. He’s the department’s lead fire-behavior analyst, charged with understanding why, how, and when wildfires will burn through the region. He began training with the LA County Fire Department before he graduated from high school.
Smith understands community needs and challenges. He works collaboratively to address risk assessment, mitigation, response, and resiliency issues. Smith is the primary LA County Fire Department leader interfacing with the Community Brigade Pilot program.