2 new full-time Cambria firefighters to be sworn in

If all goes according to plan, and no emergency calls come in to interrupt those plans, two new full-time Cambria Fire Department fire engineers will sworn in at the Dec. 15 meeting of the town’s services district board of directors.

The meeting starts at 12:30 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building, 1000 Main St.

Paramedic Mike Burkey and Michael Castellanos, emergency medical technician (EMT), will be the third and fourth recent additions/promotions to the Cambria fire crew since fire Chief William Hollingsworth assumed command in June and Dan McCrain was promoted to captain in September.

Burkey

Burkey was born in San Miguel in 1977 as the youngest of four siblings, and graduated from Atascadero High School in 1996. Soon thereafter, he moved to San Diego, attending Miramar College and then starting his career as an EMT.

In 2001, he returned to San Luis Obispo County and became a paramedic in 2004, after attending Northern California Training Institute in Milpitas. In 2011, he was hired as a full-time paramedic at the Cambria Community Healthcare District and reserve firefighter paramedic with the Cambria Fire Department.

He, his wife and their two Boston terriers live in Paso Robles.

Castellanos

Castellanos was born and raised in Cambria. (His mother, Sonya Lanzen Castellanos, founded and ran the New Dawn Montessori School in Cambria for more than a quarter-century.)

Michael Castellanos graduated from Coast Union High School. He started his career as a firefighter in Lake Shastina (Northern California), has been a Cambria fire firefighter for four years and a Cal Fire firefighter for two years. He and wife Madison live in Cambria and are expecting their first child in February.

McCrain

McCrain was born in Fresno in 1975, grew up in Oakhurst and began his fire-service career as a paid-call firefighter with Madera County Fire Department in 1994. He attended Fresno City College fire academy and graduated in the top of the class in Class No. 3. He worked for five seasons with the U.S. Forest Service on a wildland engine in the Sierra National Forest, and as an EMT.

In 2002, he became a paramedic with Sierra Ambulance Service in Oakhurst.

McCrain went to work for San Luis Ambulance, and then for Cambria Community Healthcare District, where he became operations director in 2010. He’s been a reserve firefighter and engineer with the Cambria Fire Department since 2009.

He, wife Stephanie and their two daughters live in Paso Robles.

This story was originally published December 7, 2016 at 8:25 AM with the headline "2 new full-time Cambria firefighters to be sworn in."