Fillmore Chamber of Commerce would like to congratulate Joseph Palacio for receiving Firefighter of the Year for 2012. Thank you for all you do for our community.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce Joseph Palacio as Fillmore’s 2012 Firefighter of the Year. Joseph Palacio was born in 1983 and has been a resident of the City of Fillmore his entire life. Joe’s, parents are Joe & Olivia Palacio and has a younger sister Jolene.

He recently moved to Castaic with his fiancée Vanessa and her son Richie. He attended Fillmore High school and graduated in 2002. During his senior year in high school, his Mother Olivia Palacio worked in the career center, signed him up for a ride along with Ventura County Fire Department station 27 which was his first exposure to the fire service. After the ride along, Joe became a cadet for County Fire station 27 where he learned a lot about the fire service and found his calling for public service. After high school he worked for a type two hand crew for the Las Padre National forest service’s out of Ojai where he learn the skill’s of wildland firefighting. After his first season of wild land firefighting he enrolled in fire tech classes at Oxnard College in 2003. Around that same time Joe became a ride along with the Fillmore fire department. He also worked as a supervisor for a fire prevention crew. Through the Fillmore Fire Department, he had the opportunity to enroll in the Oxnard college fire academy. After the academy, he was hired with the Fillmore Fire Department. Early on he had a passion for training, fighting fire and more importantly helping others. He traveled up and down the State of California to seek training from other agencies and brought back great new concepts and training back to our department. He also attended the Rio Hondo Truck academy and participated in a Truck academy hosted by Oxnard Fire Department. He is currently employed by AMR Ambulance and has been working as an EMT for two Ambulance Company’s for the past 8 years. During his time with Fillmore Fire Department, Joe has promoted up the ranks from firefighter to Engineer and now Captain. He currently is in charge of Engineer’s training where he is very dedicated. Captain Palacio is very dedicated to training not just to be the best firefighter he can be, but to be the safest firefighter he can be, not just for himself but the crews that he work with and the people he serves. In closing, Joe writes, I want to thank everyone in my family, and future family for being behind me and supporting me in this greatest career on earth, The Fire service. I thank God every day for the privilege to help others.