20 Years of Experience
2004 Chief Bigelow began his CAL FIRE career as a Fire Fighter I at the Ahwahnee Station in the Madera-Mariposa-Merced Unit (MMU), where he spent five seasons.
- 2009 he promoted to a Fire Apparatus Engineer at the Coarsegold Station, also in MMU.
- 2013 Chief Bigelow promoted to Limited Term Fire Captain at the Columbia Air Attack Base in the Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit (TCU) working as the Air Tanker Base Manager. At the end of the 2013 fire season, he accepted a permanent Fire Captain position in MMU as the Pre-Fire Engineer.
- 2017 he promoted to Battalion Chief as the Southern Region Pre-Fire Coordinator.
- 2020 Frank then promoted to the Deputy Chief of the then-called Wildfire Prevention Engineering Division in the Office of the State Fire Marshal, where he oversaw five statewide programs.
- 2021 he accepted a Staff Chief position in the newly created Community Wildfire Preparedness & Mitigation Division, overseeing eight statewide programs.
- 2023 (January) Chief Bigelow became the Assistant Deputy Director of Community Wildfire Preparedness & Mitigation and Fire Engineering & Investigations and oversaw the Office’s Support Services Division.
- 2023 (November) he was designated as Acting Deputy Director of Community Wildfire Preparedness & Mitigation and Fire Engineering & Investigations in November 2023.
A Multitude of Achievements
Chief Bigelow represents the department in various capacities. He is a Board of Director member for the California Fire Safe Council and is a member of the newly created Cal Poly WUI FIRE Institute Advisory Council (CWAC). Additionally, he chairs the Management Activity Project Planning & Event Reporter (CalMAPPER) Steering Committee, serves on various Wildfire & Forest Resilience Taskforce working groups, and is part of the GIS Workgroup, as well as many others. Chief Bigelow is also a State Fire Marshal Training instructor, and a California Specialized Training Institute (CSTI) instructor. His knowledge of GIS and Environmental Science Research Institute (ESRI) products will be of great benefit in this new role.
Local Connections

Please join us in congratulating Chief Bigelow on his promotion!