Brandon Colburn - Engineer

While working as an American Medical Response (AMR) paramedic before joining the fire service, Brandon Colburn responded to a stroke victim who was living alone. Having been an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) since graduating high school at 18, calls like this were exactly what Colburn was trained to handle.  

The call was nothing out of the ordinary. He and his crew transported the individual to the hospital, ensured that he was safely handed over to the nurses, and continued with their day.

About a year later, on another call, Colburn was overcome by a strange feeling of familiarity when the ambulance arrived at the house. While going through the typical line of questioning to understand what was going on, one of the children spoke up and said that the man had experienced a stroke earlier this year. When they started describing his symptoms, the memories came rushing back to Colburn.  

He remembered this man.

“You’re one of the paramedics who took him to the hospital?” one of the family members asked, and Colburn said yes. The man’s family shared that if Colburn had not transported the patient in time, he would have had permanent paralysis. They thanked him profusely, an extremely rare occurrence in his line of work.  

“But we don’t do it for that,” now-Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) Engineer Colburn stated. When it comes to his present career in firefighting, he said,

“I’m here to do my job. And I’m always going to do it to the best of my ability, no matter who’s involved or what the problem is.”

Colburn’s journey to the fire service was not direct. When he started EMT school, he also worked at Costco to pay his way. When he met his girlfriend at the time and began thinking about a future family, he realized that Costco provided the stability he needed to buy a home and plan for children, so he put his first responder dreams on hold. Soon, he moved into a supervisor role at Costco, leading across multiple locations.

Throughout that time, Colburn kept his EMT license active. While at Costco, as the only team member qualified to assist, he saved the lives of a choking victim and a customer who required cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

After nearly ten years, Colburn was ready for change. “I had seen the EMT side of things, and I enjoyed that. The fire department is where I’ve got to be,” he realized. He sat down with his now-wife, and together they agreed he had until 35 to secure a job with a fire department.

After a brief return to Costco following the fire academy, Colburn pressed forward for five years, working at AMR, completing paramedic school and an internship, and interviewing at departments across California.

At 33, Colburn got the call he had been waiting for. He joined the LAFD as the oldest person in his recruit class. Undeterred, he embraced the opportunity.

The firefighting side of the job was a big learning curve. From Fire Station 94 in Crenshaw to Fire Station 77 in the Valley, he experienced the full scope of the diverse city that the LAFD serves. Never one to sit still, he constantly sought opportunities to learn from mentors.

“Our goal as firefighters is to leave everywhere we go, every situation, better than we found it,”

he said.

Later, one of his early mentors became his captain and encouraged him to pursue the role of engineer, his present position. He served at several stations before landing at Fire Station 10, where he works today.

“You get everything here. We have some of the tallest buildings in the city in our district. But we also have small, single-family dwellings down on the southside,” he shared. “I haven’t had a single call that is exactly the same. And that’s what I like.”

Engineer Colburn fights off the “what ifs” of how life would have been different had he joined the fire department sooner. But he says with confidence that he would not change anything about his journey.

“You wouldn’t be who you are without your past,” he says.

“He’s a good mentor. He really takes time to train the younger generations,” said his captain at Fire Station 10, Matthew Stratton. He described Colburn as having an “all-around great attitude” and being “the type of person you want” at a fire station.

The Brandon Colburn who worked at Costco for nearly a decade could never have imagined he would one day be serving as an LAFD firefighter/engineer. He emphasizes that none of this would have been possible without the support of his wife, crediting his success to the sacrifices she made and her desire to see him do what he loves most.

His journey to the fire service was unconventional, but one he would not trade for anything.