By Rosalio Ahumada
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District has chosen Adam A. House to lead the seventh-largest local firefighting agency in California, where he has risen through the ranks since the fire department’s inception 23 years ago.
Metro Fire’s Board of Directors selected House as the agency’s seventh fire chief following a nationwide search. House will also become the first fire chief to work for the agency continuously since Metro Fire was created in 2000.
“As a trusted member of Metro Fire’s leadership team for many years, Chief House has the experience and respect of the Board of members and the district’s employees to lead this organization in the coming years,” Metro Fire Board President D’Elman Clark said Tuesday in a news release. “We have great confidence that under his leadership Metro Fire will remain one of the best fire district’s on the West Coast for effectiveness and innovation.”
House, who will be formally sworn in this week, will now be in charge of the agency with slightly more than 700 full-time employees working across 41 stations. Metro Fire — with a budget of slightly more than $300 million — serves about 720,000 people across 359 square miles in unincorporated areas of Sacramento County and portions of Placer County. Metro Fire also serves the cities of Rancho Cordova and Citrus Heights.
House is replacing former Metro Fire Chief Todd Harms, who announced his retirement a year ago after serving as head of the agency since November 2016. Dan Haverty has served as Metro Fire’s interim fire chief since January.
A native of the Sacramento area, House graduated from Cordova High School in 1987. He has 36 years of experience as a firefighter, including four years with the U.S. Army, where he worked as a firefighter.
In 1991, House worked as a firefighter in Yuma, Arizona, where he was eventually promoted to the rank of captain. He returned to Sacramento County to join the newly created Metro Fire agency, where he started as a firefighter.
House was later promoted to captain, battalion chief and later assistant fire chief with Metro Fire. He was instrumental in establishing the agency’s special operations division, according to the news release. He served as the first manager for the agency’s Type 1 hazardous materials program.
Metro Fire officials said House has played pivotal roles in firefighter recruitment and the fire academy, where he served as a drill master. House he contributed as a member of the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 7, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services Task Force 9 and the Type 3 Sacramento Regional Incident Management Team.
House currently lives in Sloughhouse with his wife Gia; the two met in middle school and have been married for 30 years. They have an adult son and daughter; their son Joshua is a Metro Fire firefighter stationed in Gold River.
Metro Fire will host a swearing-in ceremony for House at its regularly scheduled board meeting this Thursday.
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