Chris Nigg sworn in as Fountain Valley’s fire chief
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Fountain Valley’s new fire chief Chris Nigg recalls being resolute in his career path before it began.
Born and raised in San Bernardino, Nigg reckons he bugged the local explorer program into giving him an earlier opportunity than would have normally been allowed.
“I was one of those kids, probably not unlike a lot of young kids, that saw a fire engine, literally as far back as I can remember, always wanted to be a firefighter,” Nigg said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I found out that there was an explorer program when I was 12 or 13 years old, and aggressively pursued that at the San Bernardino City Fire Department.
“I was told repeatedly, ‘You’re too young, 15 is the minimum age.’ … Finally, I guess, I annoyed the adviser enough ... that they actually let me join sooner than I should have, right, at 13 years old. There were some things that I couldn’t do because I wasn’t covered by insurance, but that effectively kicked off my trajectory into the fire service.”
Nigg remained in that explorer program through his 2000 graduation from Cajon High. He then entered paramedic school.
During an 11-year period with his hometown fire department that stretched from 2004 to 2015, Nigg progressed through the ranks, serving as a firefighter, fire engineer and fire captain. He then made a lateral move to the city of Fullerton, where he was promoted to battalion chief and division chief.
Nigg also served as a deputy fire chief and fire marshal as part of the shared command staff for the cities of Brea and Fullerton from March 2020 to August 2021. From there, he joined the city of La Verne as its fire chief. His base salary at his new job $268,834.30.
At the Fountain Valley City Council meeting on Tuesday night, Nigg was sworn in as the city’s fire chief, beginning a new chapter for the department. He succeeds the late Bill McQuaid, who died of a heart attack in July during a bodyboarding trip to Huntington State Beach. Tim Saiki had been serving on an interim basis as the city’s acting fire chief.
Having lived and worked in Orange County, Nigg said that he had formed a friendship with McQuaid, knew of his retirement plans and was encouraged by the former chief to apply for the position.
“I feel honored to succeed Bill, not only as a fire chief, but as a friend, too,” Nigg said.
Leading the local department will mark the first time in his career that Nigg has worked for a community that does not feature a wildland component. Fire prevention and suppression efforts are among what he considers to be defining moments of his time in the fire service.
“My career started in a very busy city,” the 43-year-old Nigg said. “The city of San Bernardino has a lot of calls, a lot of fires, and so I was able to gain a lot of really, really invaluable experience, operational experience in that city. I can think back to probably two or three dozen times where my direct actions with my hands saved lives, whether it was pulling people out of a burning building, or cutting them out of a car, and those are what have the most profound impact on me.
“Every decision I make, I go back to those days, because I try to remember how decisions made by fire chiefs at that time not only made me feel, but then also impacted my ability to … make a difference, to save people’s lives, to truly change the trajectory of what’s going on in a stranger’s life.”
Nigg said he’s studying the analytic data compiled for the department, as it handles a high volume of service calls for the city’s two fire stations. Population growth is a consideration in trying to forecast the department’s ability to keep up with industry standards for response times.
“Here in Fountain Valley, we have two fire stations, and we run upwards of 8,000 calls a year between our in-jurisdiction and out-of-jurisdiction automatic aid,” Nigg said. “That’s a lot of calls for two fire stations. … The city manager appears to be supportive of diving into the analytics of the Fountain Valley Fire Department, and that’s one of my top priorities, to make sure that the community is actually being effectively served, not only now, but in the future as new developments come in.”
Fountain Valley bought a 2.86-acre property at 17101 Bushard St. for $8.1 million in April 2023. The purchase was made in the interest of building a replacement for Fire Station No. 1, which is located on 0.6-acres at 17737 Bushard St. and was built in 1958. The city is exploring funding options for the project.
Nigg, who has resided in Orange County since 2011 and moved to Newport Beach in 2019, will be working much closer to home now that he’s left the La Verne department, allowing him to spend more time with his family. He and his wife, Cassie Majestic, have two young children.
Off the job, Nigg enjoys flying, golf, scuba diving and traveling. He said he is dual licensed as a pilot for airplanes and helicopters.
