Engineer Matt Lindsey honored as SPFD Firefighter of the Year

January 11, 2017
Santa Paula News

Engineer Matt Lindsey, a firefighter whose family has devoted generations of service to the Santa Paula Fire Department, was honored as the 2016 Firefighter of the Year.

Lindsey received the award at the SPFD’s annual Christmas Party, held December 20 at the Community Center.

According to Santa Paula Firefighters Association President Austin Macias, a SPFD Captain, other members of the department select the Firefighter of the Year. 

Fire Chief Rick Araiza noted Lindsey is a native of Santa Paula whose family has a long SPFD history. 

“His fire relatives range back to the start of the Santa Paula Fire Department,” founded in 1903, with a multiple generational line of SPFD firefighters, notably on his mother Luana Lindsey’s Lazenby side of the family. 

Lindsey started with the SPFD in 2005, “virtually right out of  high school,” and the next year Lindsey advanced from a Firefighter Reserve to being hired as a full-time Firefighter.

Araiza said Lindsey was made for a firefighting career: Although “it takes a few years to develop a firefighter, from the very start Matt was always getting ready for the next step” by preparing for career advancement. 

In 2013 Lindsey, the youngest Senior Firefighter in the department was made an Acting Engineer, later assuming the job full-time. 

“I always love to see people coming up, local people” who, Araiza said, display true community dedication such as Lindsey. 

Lindsey is so dedicated to the department that Araiza said in years past he was known to call in when off duty to see if he should respond to major calls, “He’s that dedicated...” 

Married to Kelsey, Lindsey is also a noted fisherman who shares his catch of largely halibut and bass with the firefighters at Station 1 and Station 2.

Lindsey was among those injured November 18, 2014 when he was part of the SPFD Engine Company that was the first responder to Santa Clara Waste Water-Green Compass, where a vacuum truck had blown up in the early morning. Assured repeatedly by employees that the material involved in the explosion at the Mission Rock Road facility, located west of city limits, was non-hazardous wastewater, first responders attended to the victims injured by shrapnel. 

Lindsey and two other SPFD firefighters, Captain Milo Bustillos and Firefighter Matt May, suffered from injuries caused by toxic fumes from the still unknown explosive material. 

Due to their injuries, Bustillos — the 2015 Firefighter of the Year — and May had to retire from the SPFD.

Araiza said Lindsey “Fought hard to come back,” to the SPFD.

Lindsey said there were many in the department who deserved the Firefighter of the Year award, and “I’m happy and grateful” to be a part of the close-knit department. 

His selection was a “shocker but I’m happy I was chosen for this…and I’m happy I came back,” to the SPFD.





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