Fire chief exits after six years
HBFD Chief David Lantzer, far left, stands with Memorial Day Weekend honoree Robert Payne, Police Chief Sharon Papa, and Major General Robert D. McMurray. Fire Chief David Lantzer resigned as head of the Hermosa Beach Fire Department last Thursday. Lantzer, who has served as fire chief for more than six years, expects that his last day will be Oct. 8. Lantzer said he is taking a new position as head of the City of Murrieta Fire Department in order to be closer to his family in the Imperial Valley. Lantzer leaves with a debt of gratitude to his co-workers. “We have a very caring group of firefighters,” he said. “They work hard to make sure that if you dial 911, you’re going to be taken care of.” Lantzer arrived in Hermosa Beach at the height of the recession, and said that budgetary difficulties dominated the early part of his tenure. “We had the recession, and we had the [Macpherson] oil lawsuit, and we had to make some tough cutbacks,” Lantzer said in an interview. As the city weathered financial difficulty, Lantzer said he has more recently been focused on trying to return the department to full strength. The department has recently hired a new emergency manager and a new fire…
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