Ben Lomond fire Chief John Charcho announced this month that he is retiring from fire protection for a second time.
Charcho, 59, has served the Ben Lomond Fire Protection District for 5½ years after originally retiring from the San Jose Fire Department. He was a full-time firefighter for San Jose for 28 years. He finished his career as an arson investigator.
Charcho, who moved to Ben Lomond six weeks before the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, was hired by Ben Lomond Fire in 2004 after being retired for two years.
Although happily retired at the time, Charcho was checking his mailbox when the district’s secretary noticed he was wearing a fire department shirt. She knew the district was looking for a new chief, so she mentioned the job to Charcho who was hired shortly after.
He made the decision to retire for a second time in order to spend more time with his wife of 39 years, Mara, and travel to see his daughters, one who lives in the Humbolt area and the other in Washington.
Charcho’s last day is April 30 and no successor has been named. The district will post the job opening soon and then complete an open hiring process.
During his time with Ben Lomond, Charcho ran a Firefighter 1 training academy that prepared many paid call volunteer firefighters — a volunteer firefighter who is paid for each call — for full-time paid positions at other departments.
The number of volunteers has increased from 31 to 40 under his leadership and he delivered Tuesday night training sessions each week.
“They were a pleasure to supervise,” Charcho said. “There were not a lot of discipline issues and they want to be here. That is inspiring.”
As the chief official for the department, he advocated for a new, modern firehouse in Ben Lomond, a plan that was nixed by voters in 2008.
He is impressed at the attentiveness of the Ben Lomond paid call firefighters at training sessions and willingness to get up at all hours of the night to respond.
Charcho recalled that 25 paid call firefighters battled the Brookdale Inn and Spa blaze last summer and that two crews — half of his engines — went to Bonny Doon to battle the Lockheed Fire.
“These are the guys that deserve a lot of respect,” he said. “Day in and day out, at 3 a.m. on a Saturday or on a cold December night, they’re there. They deserve a lot of credit.”
