Assistant CAL FIRE Battalion Chief Jason Dyer has been named Fire Chief for the cities of Biggs and Gridley. Photo courtesy of CAL FIRE

GRIDLEY, CA (MPG) - Veteran CAL FIRE officer Jason Dyer, whose career spanned nearly every corner of Butte County, has been selected as the new fire chief for the cities of Gridley and Biggs.

Both cities receive fire protection and emergency medical response through long standing cooperative agreements with CAL FIRE. The contracts provide full-service staffing, administration and operations in place of separate municipal fire departments.

Dyer introduced himself to the Biggs City Council earlier this month, telling council members he was grateful to return to the community where he first started his career 25 years ago.

“I’ve worked throughout Butte County, but I spent about eight years in the Biggs and Gridley area and several of those years here in Biggs,” Dyer said. “I really enjoyed that part of my career, so I’m very happy to be back.”

Retired South Division Chief Chip Fowler introduced Dyer as his replacement to the Gridley City Council on Jan. 20, praising Dyer’s leadership and experience.

“Jason comes to you with a lot of knowledge and he’s got a strong work ethic,” Fowler said. “He is a very sound chief officer both administratively and operationally.”

Dyer was raised in Butte County and began his fire service career immediately after graduating high school in 2000, working as a seasonal firefighter for CAL FIRE in Stirling City and as a volunteer firefighter for the Butte County Fire Department. After his first fire season, he attended the Butte Fire Academy and earned an associate degree in fire science while continuing to work as a firefighter in the Gridley area and later in Magalia.

Dyer was promoted to fire apparatus engineer at the Jarbo Gap Station and later worked as an engineer at Robinson Mill and Gridley. He became a fire captain in 2009, serving briefly in the Lassen Modoc Unit before returning to Butte County, where he worked in Feather Falls, Berry Creek, Jarbo Gap, Durham and South Chico.

Dyer was promoted to battalion chief of the Butte Unit Training Bureau in 2020. In 2022, he transferred to Battalion 6, overseeing the communities of Oroville, Kelly Ridge, Palermo, and Cherokee. He also served as an operations branch director on CAL FIRE Incident Management Team 3 and previously worked on Teams 4 and 5, frequently filling the role of division supervisor on major incidents throughout the state. Dyer has been a member of CAL

FIRE’s Technical Rescue Team since 2004 and was a team leader. He taught multiple State Fire Marshal rescue courses and served as an instructor at the Butte College Fire Academy.

Dyer will serve the Biggs-Gridley area out of his offices in Gridley and Oroville.