John Fox, Chief, San Juan Bautista Fire Department
Primary Instructor
Currently John Fox is the Fire Chief with the San Juan Bautista Fire
Department, San Juan Bautista, CA. John has been the Chief for San
Juan Bautista since 2010. Previously he was a Firefighter/Engineer for 8
years and a Captain/Duty Officer with Felton Fire Protection District
for over 15 years. He was a Captain/EMS Coordinator with Lockheed Fire
Dept. in Sunnyvale, CA for over 3 years until closure of the department.
Currently he is a Senior Investigator/Peace Officer for the CA State
Department of Public Health. An avid horseman, John established the
Felton Fire Dept. LAR Unit that responds mutual aid throughout central
California. Currently John and Deb are the leads for the Large Animal
Rescue Unit with the San Juan Bautista Fire Department. His analytical
mind continues to resolve the many challenges of LAR incidents to build
routine responses to highly volatile situations. He is the primary
developer of LAR-Operations, approved by CA State Fire Training and POST
in 2000 and is a CA State Fire Instructor 1.
Deb Fox, FF2/EMT Retired, San Juan Bautista Fire
Primary Instructor
Deb is a retired Firefigheer II/ EMT with the San Juan Bautista Fire
Department with over 16 years fire sevice experience. She is currently
a lead for the departments Large Animal Rescue Unit. Deb was a
Firefighter II/EMT and lead for the Large Animal Rescue Unit with the
FFPD for 9 years. A horsewoman with over 28 years experience, she is a
lead in the LAR Unit with 18 years of LAR experience. With a passion
for horses, Deb continues to develop and apply an understanding of horse
behavior and characteristics to on-scene handling and safety. Deb is a
CA State Fire Instructor 1 and was a developer of LAR-Operations. She
also works as a rare books/paper Conservator for Stanford University.
Jason Smith, Captain, Monterey Fire Department
Lead Instructor
Jason Smith was been with FFPD for 12 years as a Captain-Duty
Officer/Firefighter/Engineer and is currently a Captain with the
Monterey Fire Department. He spent 6 years as a fulltime
Lieutenant/training officer for the Monterey Airport Fire Department.
Jason previously worked with a rescue equipment supply firm and
conducted many hours of confined space stand by. Jason is well versed
in rope rescue systems and brings this perspective to scenarios. He is a
LAR Unit Lead with many years of LAR experience as a rescuer and as
Command.
Kristi Fredrickson, Horse Handling, Human coaching.
Lead Instructor
Kristi has been involved with horses for twenty-plus years; the most
recent sixteen of those has been spent studying with Buck Brannaman,
Ray Hunt, Bryan Neubert and Tom Dorrance. She currently works full-time
teaching horsemanship, developing bridle horses in the California
Vaquero tradition, starting colts and working with problem horses. In
addition to her work for private clients, she evaluates and
rehabilitates horses in the custody of local shelters and rescues, and
teaches horse handling skills to volunteers and workers. She’s assisted
the local shelter in trailer-loading for a number of horse rescues, and
participated in horse evacuations during the 2008 central California
fires. Kristi was recently featured in the film “Buck”, winner of
“Best Documentary” Sundance Film Festival 2011.
Chief Ron Rickabaugh, FFPD
Lead Instructor
Ron has been with FFPD for over 30 years and has seerved as the
chief for the last 15 years. Ron is well versed all aspects of Large
Animal Rescue and brings the “Command” perspective to the scenarios.
Ron has over 12 years of LAR experience from all perspectives.
Vaka Tanami, Firefighter, Goodyear Fire Department, Goodyear, AZ
Lead Instructor
Vaka Taimani is currently a firefighter with the Goodyear Fire
Department in Arizona. Vaka was with FFPD for 8 years as a Firefighter
and has years of experience in large animal rescues. Vaka is will
versed in the use of rope systems and equipment application for Large
Animal Rescues
Angela Gonzales, Engineer/Paramedic Central Santa Cruz Fire Protection District
Instructor
Angela has been with Central Fire for several years as a Firefighter and is currently an Engineer/Paramedic.
Jeff Christner, Captain of Animal Rescue & Control at PHS/SPCA
Instructor
Jeff Christner has been with the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA
since 2002, he is the Chief Humane Officer, a POST Certified Field
Training Officer (FTO), and currently leads the Department of Animal
Rescue & Control as their Captain. PHS/SPCA is the sole provider of
animal control services and humane investigations for all of San Mateo
County. Jeff was the driving force behind PHS/SPCA forming a Large
Animal Rescue Team and their 20 Humane Officers respond to an average of
six LAR calls per year.