Bresnan marks 25 years with fire department

When John Bresnan was a child, he and his friend would often sit in front of his television set and watch the show “Emergency.” 

“That was one of the hot shows on TV [in the ’70s], and it was about two paramedics in the Los Angeles Fire Department,” he said. 

Both boys were enamored with the series. The young, impressionable pair wanted to emulate their favorite characters on the show and join the fire service. 

“We decided that when we graduated we were going to be paramedics, and we would work for a while in this area where we grew up and then we were going to move to California,” Bresnan said. “It seemed exciting. It seemed like something every kid wanted to do. I guess it stuck with me.” 

Now, years later, Bresnan is celebrating his 25th anniversary as the chief of the Homewood Fire Department. 

A longtime Birmingham resident, Bresnan graduated from Center Point High School and volunteered at the Center Point Fire Department. Upon graduating, Bresnan took the personnel board test for firefighters and began working as a paramedic and firefighter full-time. 

He has been both figuratively and literally putting out fires for the Homewood Fire Department since March 1987 when he first joined. 

Bresnan is currently the longest serving active fire chief in Jefferson County, having been promoted to the office in November 1992. He hit the ground running in his new role, immediately tackling emergencies and natural disasters. 

He had only been fire chief for a few months when a snowstorm hit Alabama in March 1993. The blizzard, popularly called the “Storm of a Century,” toppled trees and covered Birmingham-area roads with between 10 and 20 inches of snow. 

Bresnan recalls that at the time of the storm, the department had one set of dual-tire snow chains that it originally planned to cut in half to outfit two separate trucks. However, it had delayed outfitting the trucks and had not yet cut the chains in half. 

“There were 18 inches of snow,” Bresnan said, “and we had one truck with snow chains that could go anywhere in the city.”

That was Bresnan’s first time navigating a major natural disaster and large-scale emergency. It would not be his last. 

Over his 30-year career in the fire service, Bresnan has witnessed a rapidly changing world where the role of emergency responders has shifted. 

“We went through this evolution where what we would normally be worried about is whether the tractor trailer that turned over on the interstate had some sort of chemical that you would have to contain, to a time where we have to think, ‘What happened here? Was this a natural disaster or a deliberate event? Are we going to have to extricate someone from a building?’” Bresnan said. “That changed the scope of the fire service a lot.” 

Despite the changes in technology and scope, Bresnan feels that the future of fire service and of the Homewood Fire Department is bright. As he continues his tenure as fire chief, he said he is looking forward to serving the Homewood community well. 

“I have what is probably the best job in the fire service,” Bresnan said. “I love my job. I love coming in to work. I love Homewood.”