City officials welcomed Lake Elsinore’s new CAL FIRE battalion chief, Shawn Burris, during the June 9 City Council meeting.
Division Chief Dustin Reed introduced Burris to the council and community, highlighting his years of fire service experience. Burris began his career in 2000 as a volunteer firefighter with the Riverside County Fire Department in Beaumont. He later served with the U.S. Forest Service before joining CAL FIRE in Riverside County in 2004.
Throughout his career, Burris has worked in Riverside, San Luis Obispo and San Diego counties. He advanced through the ranks from firefighter to fire apparatus engineer, fire captain and battalion chief. In 2023, he transferred to the Perris Emergency Command Center as a lead training officer. He was promoted to battalion chief in 2025 and served as a relief battalion chief in Battalion 5 and Batallion 11.
“Shawn was my right-hand man when we took the command center and got it accredited,” Reed said. “I personally brought him into the command center because of his work ethic. And when he promoted to battalion chief and we lost Chief Wright, I personally asked him to put a transfer into this battalion.”
Burris thanked city leaders and said he looks forward to serving the community.
“Thank you for this opportunity to come here today and introduce myself,” Burris said. “I’ve worked with a few of you already with some events and some incidents that we’ve had in the city. I look forward to working with the rest of you and serving the city of Lake Elsinore.”
