Deputy Fire Chief Mike Inman has worked as a fire service professional for over 40 years. Chief Inman started his career in 1983, as a reserve firefighter with the Monterey Park Fire Department. In 1986, he was hired as a firefighter with the County of Los Angeles Fire Department (LACoFD) and has promoted through the ranks as a firefighter, firefighter specialist, fire captain, battalion chief, and assistant fire chief. Chief Inman was appointed to deputy fire chief in March 2024.
Currently, Chief Inman is assigned to the Special Services Bureau where he leads a team of nearly 300 professional staff with 113 dedicated dispatch personnel dispatching more than 449,000 calls for services each year, 94 professional trades personnel that provide facility maintenance and oversee construction of new and replacement structures for over 260 facilities, and over 55 mechanics responsible for repairing, outfitting, and maintaining a fleet of more than 1,900 Department vehicles and emergency apparatus. Chief Inman also oversees the LACoFD’s Equipment Development Committee.
Prior the Special Services Bureau, Chief Inman was assigned to the East Regional Operations Bureau where he led and managed four divisions with 1,400 personnel, 10 battalions, and 76 fire stations serving 34 cities.
Well versed in emergency management, Chief Inman became a pioneer in the urban search and rescue program that included several national deployments. For over 23 years, he has held various incident command system positions as part of the United States Forest Service Type 2 Incident Management Team (IMT) and served as the operations section chief and operations branch director with the Cal Fire Type 1 IMT. Since 1998, Chief Inman has served in various capacities on the LACoFD Incident Management Teams.
Chief Inman is a certified California State Fire Marshal Chief Officer, and a graduate of the Executive Leadership Development Program and Public Safety Leadership Program at the University of Southern California, Sol Price School of Public Policy. He teaches FEMA and California Incident Command Certification System courses and is a qualified incident commander, operations section chief, safety officer, and division supervisor.
Over the last several years, Chief Inman has served as the operations section chief for several all-risk and wildland urban interface incidents, including, but not limited to, the Woolsey Fire (2018), Saddle Ridge Fire (2019), Operation Room Key (2020), COVID-19 Mass Vaccinations (2021), and Super Bowl LVI (2022).
