October 23
- Communications Specialist Zack Mullennix was
honored for his hours of dedicated service to
the citizens of San Bernardino County by
Assemblymember Wilmer Carter at a volunteer
recognition ceremony held at the County
Government Center.
Zack joined the San
Bernardino County Fire Department as a volunteer
Communications Specialist in 1996. In 1999 he
was promoted to Training Officer for Emergency
Communications Service. He was promoted to
Deputy Operations Chief in 2001. Following a
leadership change in 2003, he was appointed the
Chief Radio Officer for San Bernardino County
Fire, Emergency Communications Services (ECS).
Since Zack was promoted to Chief Radio
Officer, the organization has grown from a
struggling volunteer group to a professional,
front-line communications, technical and
logistical support unit. The unit consists of
more than 205 active members. Under his
leadership the ECS organization now has almost
100 members who are National Incident Management
System (NIMS) Tier 3 compliant and over 70
members who are field certified for Hazmat,
CPR/First Aid, Traffic Control and Red Card
Specialist. The organization provides an
average of 7,000+ hours in volunteer services to
the County annually.
Under his
leadership the organization has developed
several key programs within the County,
including the Master Coordination of Emergency
Communication Units, advanced ID and
credentialing as well as the development and
creation of a professional training standard.
Zack was instrumental in the redesign and
upgrade of the new County EOC Communications
Section, led the design and development of a new
countywide disaster radio system.
Under
his direction, San Bernardino County led the way
in the creation and development of the Southwest
ACS Communications group. This group is made up
of the seven southern counties and State OES
with the mission to coordinate, develop and
implement communications protocol, training
standards and mutual aid operations between the
counties’ emergency communications assets in
time of major incident or disaster. ECS also
provides a specialized technical support unit
for all County Fire Command Post operations.
Zack has also been involved in many
major incidents, including the 2003 Firestorms,
Sawtooth Complex, Grass Valley/Slide Complex,
and the Station Fire, to list a few. In
coordination with our county fire chiefs’ we now
deploy a small-specialized unit to support our
Terrorism Early Warning Group while conducting
their operations.
Zack works closely
with multiple county department and agencies to
train and equip them with emergency
communications equipment for use in times of
disaster. Through ECS, he has also developed
and implemented the County Non-Governmental
Organization (NGO) Emergency Communications Unit
working group.
Zack is currently
trained in advanced Incident Command System
(ICS) and NIMS. He has also received
certifications in Hazardous Materials in
Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC)
Situations and special events planning,
counter-terrorism, Emergency Vehicle Operations,
Wildland Fire Suppression, Emergency Medical
Technician, Shelter Operations and Shelter
Manager as well as basic Public Information
Officer (PIO) training, NBC Hospital Emergency
Management, Staging Area Manager and
Investigator I. He also is certified as an
instructor for Community Emergency Response Team
(CERT) training, video documentation, Incident
Communications and Command Post Operations.
Since joining the County in 1996 Zack
has generously provided more than 16,000 hours
of service, averaging 1,300 hours per year.
