Third in a series. 

Re: “Love at First Sight for White” 

A little more than a month before marking his first anniversary as Fire Chief, Dave White, armed with bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Cal State Long Beach, talked about his formal entry into the fire service in the early 1980s.

Mr. White’s career unfolded at a fascinating time in the long tradition of firefighting.

He arrived as departments across the country were making the historic transition from mainly firefighting to providing a major medical service.

“I spent four seasons with the Forest Service, and the medical aspect of the job was appealing to me as well as the firefighting,” Mr. White said.

“I got EMT training at Pasadena City College, and I continued my training while going to paramedic school.”

His first fulltime post-college job was with the Los Angeles City Fire Dept. as a single-function paramedic.

“I was not a firefighter,” he said.

Inside of a year, however, he left the huge department to join Culver City’s team, and here he has been ever since. That was 1988. His 27th anniversary is at hand.

“One of the things that drew me to Culver City,” said Mr. White, “was that they already had embraced that mission” of changing over from primarily fire to primarily medical.

“By 1988, when I arrived, Culver City had been providing paramedic services for almost 20 years already. Culver City has been in the paramedic business since 1970.”

(To be continued)