REAL McElroy S
C ST OV OR ER Y
If Being Good Isn’t Enough‚ Fire Chief Has Luck of the Irish by Nick Welsh
PAUL WELLMAN
he is irresistible, all enthusiasm, curiosity, and anta Barbara Fire Chief generosity. Pat McElroy didn’t grow up McElroy, still a relatively new chief with wanting to be a firefighter. just over a year at the helm, now occupies He always wanted to be a offices in the Fire Department’s new and teacher, but he fell into fire improved Carrillo Street fire station. His digs fighting as a way to make boast high ceilings and an expansive window. money when he was a UCSB student. He On his walls are the detailed fire maps one started off working for the Forest Service’s would expect, but McElroy ain’t your typical “Blue Card” crew, cleaning up after fires fire chief. Where music fanaticism is conthat had mostly been put out. But when cerned, he needs daily rabies shots. There are the Sycamore Canyon blaze ravaged Santa original concert posters from the 1970s and Barbara in 1977, McElroy was part of the a photo — though admittedly photoshopped ground crews: “That’s when I knew this was — of him posing with The Rolling Stones. what I wanted to do.” McElroy came of age in the late 1960s and In 1981, McElroy passed the test for the remains to this day an unrepentant Dead Santa Barbara City Fire Department. He Head. He speaks glowingly of the many still remembers the first structure fire to concerts he attended at UCSB’s Rob Gym which his station responded. It was in the and recalls seeing Van Morrison at the old middle of the night, and as the fire trucks Granada Theatre — about the time Saint pulled up to the building, flames leaping Dominic’s Preview came out in 1972 — frozen into the air, McElroy thought,“Oh man, I by one of his infamous bouts of stage fright. got to call somebody. But the next moment, There may be a few fire chiefs throughout I thought,‘They already did, and it’s us.’” California who can brag about buying the Over the years, McElroy quickly underground Zap comics featuring the painemerged as “the firefighters’ firefighter.” To fully twisted genius of cartoonist R. Crumb, an exceptional degree, he became the most and probably even fewer who could make visible face of the department. It wasn’t that passing reference to the music of John Fahey, he rescued every cat from every tree or one of America’s most intriguingly original every child from every burning building — — however addled and obscure — voices on it just seemed that way.“If there was a chilthe acoustic guitar. dren’s book called ‘My Life as a Firefighter,’” And then there is his bookcase, an omnicommented Mayor Helene Schneider,“it vore’s delight. There are biographies of basewould have Pat’s picture on the cover.” ball and football greats Sandy Koufax and McElroy is not only a great firefighter; Johnny Unitas, a book on Irish American he’s also without a doubt the best natural politics, another about Irish American gangpolitician operating in Santa Barbara sters, Water and Power, the classic tome of County that nobody ever voted for — and California politics, a Big Lebowski paperback, he damned well better be. Given the dire Keith Richards’s autobiography, and enough challenges confronting our city’s fire books on former President Lyndon Johnson department, as well as every fire departto keep a serious scholar of power politics ment throughout Southern California, busy for a year. And they’ve all been read. McElroy will need all his formidable skills — not to mention the proverbial luck PADDY BOY: Though the luck of the Irish had only a little to do with his career of the Irish — to navigate the uncharted trajectory — frontline firefighter to union leader to political power broker to fire chief road ahead. Some of those challenges are — Patrick Joseph Michael McElroy came into the world on March 17, Saint Patrick’s Day. excruciatingly obvious: extreme weather, prolonged drought, and the likely prospect that a backcountry blaze will turn into a front-country controvertibly Irish. McElroy’s grandparents on his father’s One of McElroy’s more recent enthusiasms is the sympoflagration. Others are not so evident: Emergency medical side emigrated from Ireland; so did his great-grandparents sium on California wildfires now taking place at UCSB treatment calls comprise 80 percent of the fire department’s on his mother’s side. McElroy himself — full name Patrick — courtesy of the Bren School of Environmental Science caseload. Joseph Michael — came into the world on St. Patrick’s Day & Management — in which experts from a wide array of 61 years ago. And what could possibly be more stereotypidisciplines are exploring different aspects of what’s become cally Irish in America than working for the fire department? a growing menace. McElroy sports a shock of prematurely white hair, thick It makes sense McElroy would be interested. When a black horn-rimmed glasses, and a semi-permanent, semimajor fire breaks out, no one department can put it out. sideways grin. Naturally, he has the signature mustache California fire departments have longstanding mutual-aid required of all males serious about a career in public safety. agreements in which they come to each other’s rescue. Though the luck of the Irish had only a little to do with McElroy isn’t particularly big, though he’s plenty sturdy even Imagine creating a new city under less than optimal condiMcElroy’s career trajectory — frontline firefighter to union tions — providing meals, porta-potties, sleeping accomleader and political power broker to fire chief — he is incon- 33 years after first joining the department. In conversation,
California’s Burning
The Man Inside the Suit
CONTINUED >>>> > march 13, 2014
THE INDEPENDENt
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