East Fork Chief Tod Carlini sets Feb. 7 retirement date

The longest-serving East Fork Fire Protection District Chief, Tod Carlini, announced he is officially retiring on Feb. 7, 2025, at Tuesday’s district board meeting.

Between his volunteer and professional careers, Carlini has been fighting fires for half a century.

“I have been honored to have spent 28 years here at East Fork,” he wrote. “I have been blessed to have worked with some of the very best individuals that have walked on this Earth. For some, I have been the only district fire chief that they have know in their careers. All good things do come to an end, but the promise of the future can be just as good, if not better.”

Carlini started fighting fires in 1975 as a member of the Yerington Volunteer Fire Department and began his professional career in 1985 with the Mason Valley Fire District. In 1990, he was named chief of that department in before coming to work as training captain in East Fork in 1997.

Carlini was named chief at East Fork in 2000 taking over for Jim Reinhardt.

Two serving East Fork Fire Protection District Board members, Bernie Curtis and Jacques Etchegoyhen, were on the Douglas County Board of Commissioners that hired Carlini.

Carlini said establishing a board of directors separate from the county in 2016 was one of the key events during his tenure as chief.

“A task which for many years was thought to be unachievable,” he said in his letter.

He praised his staff, including the battalion chiefs, Volunteer Coordinator Elaine Pace and the firefighters.

“From our newest captains to our more senior captains, the day-to-day operations are truly in their hands,” he said. “These individuals and many more have made it a habit of making this organization and my position and performance look good every single day.”

Even with just over four months left in his tenure, Carlini set out a list of 28 objectives he wanted to accomplish before he leaves.

One of those is to offer any help the district board would like to facilitate finding a new chief.

“Even with my retirement on the horizon, I still feel it is important to define some short-term objectives that I hope to complete or at least push forward past my time here,” he said.

Carlini said he plans to assemble the basic framework of a 3-5 year strategic plan for the board to consider.