Barrett Dorner

Barrett is a private (firefighter/paramedic) with the Toledo (OH) Fire & Rescue Department and the chief of the Portage Fire District in Oak Harbor (OH).

Barrett started going to fires at 16-years-old as a freelance photojournalist. Within a year, he was the weekend assignment manager at WUPW-TV, the FOX affiliate in Toledo. He moved through the ranks to become a general assignment reporter and fill-in anchor at WUPW, before moving “across the street” to WTOL-TV, the CBS affiliate.

In his journalism career, Barrett covered such high-profile events as presidential visits, the disappearance and murder investigation of Nevaeh Buchanan in Monroe, Michigan, the disappearance of the Skelton brothers in Lewawee County, Michigan, and the deadly EF-4 tornado that struck Lake Township, Ohio. In addition, he estimates he covered about 400 structure fires in his 8 years in that career, giving him the unique perspective of seeing fires from the outside –- fueling his passion for incident command.

The son of four Toledo police officers, including one who had been a paramedic/firefighter, public safety runs in the family. After his first volunteer run on Rossford Fire & Rescue, he and his brother, Dan, decided they needed to make this their full-time career.

After a brief stint as a 9-1-1 calltaker and police/fire/EMS dispatcher at Perrysburg Township, Barrett joined the Toledo Fire & Rescue Department in 2013.

A month after leaving the academy, Barrett was one of the crews that responded to the scene of the Magnolia Street fire that claimed the lives of his classmate, Pvt. Jamie Dickman, and Pvt. Steve Machcinski.

Driven by his experiences, Barrett’s primary focuses are on influencing change in the fire service, incident command, realistic training, and a back-to-basics approach. In his time in the fire service, Barrett’s shared his passions by teaching across the country, providing training consulting, developing after-action report programs, leading strategic planning, improving incident command practices, developing public relations strategies including a successful levy campaign and annual reports, and managed department social media accounts.

Barrett is an incident safety officer, public information officer, and is trained to the technician level in vehicle and machinery extrication, trench rescue, rope rescue, swiftwater rescue, hazardous materials/weapons of mass destruction, and confined space. He is trained in structural collapse operations and is also a public safety diver.

In education, Barrett is a fire and EMS instructor, as well as an instructor trainer. He has developed courses for fire departments, EMS departments, and a major health system.

Barrett holds a Bachelor of Science in Fire Administration from Bowling Green State University, where he will begin pursuing his Master’s degree in Organizational Development in the fall of 2022.