Danny Alvarez

Fire Chief

Chief Danny Alvarez was born in Santa Monica and raised in San Fernando Valley. Chief Alvarez comes to the Santa Monica Fire Department from the Burbank Fire Department where he spent the last 25 years of his career, most recently in the rank of Deputy Fire Chief. Chief Alvarez has experience leading a department across many ranks of the fire service during his quarter century in Burbank. He was an Acting Fire Chief, Battalion Chief, Fire Captain, Fire Engineer, Fire Prevention Inspector, and Recruit Academy Instructor. He also was an Urban Search and Rescue member and Hazardous Materials Team member. Deputy Chief Alvarez was an integral part of the Burbank Fire Department's leadership team providing oversight of 120 sworn personnel, 16 civilian staff, and directly supervised 5 battalion chiefs. In his role as Burbank Fire's Deputy Chief, Alvarez also led equity and inclusion initiatives for the department that included their recruitment and training processes.  

Chief Alvarez holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fire and Emergency Management from Waldorf University and has engaged in extensive education and training throughout his career, including certifications from the Center for Public Safety Excellence, Los Angeles Fire Department Leadership Academy, and has been accepted into the Executive Fire Officer Program through the National Fire Academy. 

Chief Alvarez was sworn in on March 1, 2022, as Santa Monica Fire Department's Fire Chief, and leads the Class 1 Department of 122 sworn and 15 non-sworn personnel. Santa Monica Fire maintains highly specialized services, including a hazardous materials unit, an urban search and rescue team, a dedicated airport response company, and an accredited fire academy. The Department also supports piloting new deployment strategies to help meet the needs of the community, including the new Community Response Unit (CRU) that works collaboratively with other departments to provide an alternative response to 9-1-1 calls to better address the needs of the vulnerable populations in the community. The Department responds to approximately 16,000 calls annually.