San Luis Obispo County Fire Dept

CAL FIRE /San Luis Obispo County Fire Department  Division Chief Steve Spinharney is in charge of the Coastal Division which is compromised of the coastal areas from the Monterrey county line to the Santa Barbara county line.

He supervises three field battalion Chiefs, the training Battalion Chief and Cuesta Conservation Camp. he has 28 years with the department and has worked in multiple Units with multiple roles including a Fire Fighter, Engineer, Captain, Battalion Chief, Administrative Officer, and Director of Fire Training at the department Academy in Ione, CA.  

Chief Spinharney has 11 years of Type 1 Incident Management Team  experience as a Branch Director  and Operations Section Chief  and in his current role as an Incident Commander Trainee on CAL FIRE IMT1. His most current assignments included the LNU Central Complex (Santa Rosa), The Lilac 5 fire in San Diego County, and Mud Slide/ Debris Flow in Santa Barbera County.

He has been a part of two technical rescue teams and was an auto extrication instructor for 15 years.

He has earned an Associates Degree in Fire Science from Butte Community College and a Bachelors of Administration Degree from the California State University, Chico. 

As a 17 year resident of Templeton he has been an active  youth sports coach, club sports coach, and Templeton High School boys’ volleyball coach for 4 years. 

He has been married to his lovely wife Roann for 24 years who works for the Templeton Unified School District. They have two children; Shane and  Savannah.