Walking into Martin Serna's office you won't see any family pictures, a board full of sticky notes or busy handwriting. Just two weeks into his new job as the chief of the Torrance Fire Department Serna hasn't had the time to decorate his office yet. A cup of coffee is more important to him – at least for now, as countless introduction meetings are filling up the blank space in his calendar.
The chief's 13-hour day starts around 5 o'clock in the morning, when most Torrance residents are still enjoying their first cup of coffee at home, not bending over files, preparing for meetings or responding to emails. Still, Serna is not the first one in the office: "As the Fire Department, we're always open," he said. People cause accidents, fall off stairs or start fires in the middle of the night, scenarios Serna is very much familiar with.
His career in Torrance didn't just start when he sat down in his new office's black leather chair. Serna has been at the department since March 1, 1993, when he started as a student in the fire academy. As a young boy living in Norwalk, California, he set his heart on this heroic profession after he watched firefighters pull a neighbor's grandmother out of a burning house down the street.
"That left an impression. I knew I wanted to do this with my life," Serna says.
Now, at the age of 46, he wears a suit and tie to work as the chief of the department, but that hasn't always been the case. After graduating from the academy, he attended UCLA and received his paramedic degree, then took the exam to become a fire engineer, got promoted to fire captain, battalion chief, assistant fire chief and then fire marshal. On January 14, he was appointed the first black fire department chief of Torrance, where African-Americans make up 2.94 percent of the total population, according to the 2010 census.
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Along his career path, Serna met Carl Besanceney, who is battalion chief in Torrance and a dear friend. He's also one of the people in the department who knows Serna the best.
"We were paramedic partners and then climbed through the ranks together," Besanceney says. "He's completely competent, hard-working and dedicated to his job and his family, and he has a lot of support from the community and the staff of the department."
Serna's dedication, vision and leadership skills made him stand out in front of his seven competitors for the $228,800-a-year job. Former fire Chief William Racowschi and Torrance City Manager LeRoy Jackson, who appointed Serna, agree.
"Decisions like this are always hard," Jackson says, but he felt like Serna had a plan for the department and the skills to carry it out. "He knows how to communicate with the troops, he has a basis of confidence with them," the city manager emphasizes.
It is a confidence that can only be established over years in the department, and Serna has spent 23 years with the team.
Racowschi agrees. He has seen the new fire chief build the necessary skills for the job since Serna's first day in the department.
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"He now needs to establish his own leadership style and deal with the fallout after the ExxonMobil refinery explosion last February," the former chief says, but Racowschi believes in Serna. "He's well prepared for that. As a fire marshal, he was in charge of fire prevention and hazards."
On February 28th a lot of things went wrong at ExxonMobil's refinery in Torrance; one of them was the alert system for residents of the area.
"We were in the process of switching from one system to another at that time," Serna claims, explaining the delay in notifying residents. To be better prepared in case the refinery causes trouble again, he is setting up an alert system for residents through which they can get notified via cell phone, landline or text message.
"We're also looking for opportunities to prevent risk instead of being on the reactive side," Serna says. This includes improved fire detectors that won't cause as many false alarms, a more appropriate response to medical emergencies, which make up more than 70 percent of the department's calls, and measures to prevent traffic accidents at hot spots.
Still, at the end of his work day around 6 p.m., he becomes a devoted family man. "Married for 20 years," Serna says with a proud smile. His eyes light up when he starts talking about his family life. "I have four children, the oldest one started college, the youngest one is nine years old."
Serna lives in Torrance and is active in his church, St. Catherine Laboure Church, is a member on his children's school board and choaches his son's baseball team and his daughter's basketball team. With such full calendar, even after he is done with work for the day, no surprise he hasn't had the time to decorate his office.
Reach staff reporter Aziza Kasumov here.
Annenberg Media