The City of Abbotsford has announced a new fire chief to lead Abbotsford Fire Rescue Service (AFRS) following the retirement of Don Beer.
Darren Lee begins his new role on March 15, replacing Beer, who is retiring after 22 years of service with AFRS. Lee was most recently the deputy chief responsible for training and special operations with the Township of Langley.
He also previously served as chief officer with the City of West Kelowna and the District of Oak Bay.
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Lee holds a bachelor’s degree from the Justice Institute of British Columbia and has been an active member of the B.C. Fire Training Officers Association.
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His background includes working with provincial fire academies as an adjunct instructor for the past 20 years. He has worked with a wide range of First Nations and municipal fire service agencies throughout the province.
Lee has also served the province through the Structure Protection Program since 2006 and has been deployed on numerous large wildland urban interface incidents across B.C.
Under Beer’s leadership, AFRS developed a Fire Master Plan as part of the city’s Plan 200K Project, partnered with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency during the avian flu outbreak to coordinate the city’s response, developed an emergency operations centre freshet response process, and supported development of the city’s COVID-19 response plan.
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