Assistant Chief Brian O'Neal relocated to Las Vegas from the Seattle area and was hired by the Clark County Fire Department in January 2003. He has spent most of his career serving in stations along the Las Vegas Strip, promoting to Engineer (2008), and Captain (2012) prior to Assistant Chief. He has also been a Paramedic since 2006. Prior to his promotion, Brian served as the liaison to the Southern Nevada Counter-Terrorism Center and LVMPDs MACTAC section, training public safety personnel in both urban and rural settings in critical incident tactics and response.Brian has a Bachelor of Science in History from Eastern Oregon University, a Fire Science degree from College of Southern Nevada, and is completing an MPA/MCJ from the University of Colorado-Denver, with an emphasis in Homeland Security and Emergency Management. Brian has had numerous state and local Incident Management Team and USAR deployments including as a Plans Team Manager with NVTF1 to the Hurricane Ida response on Grand Isle, LA, and as the initial IC supporting the Southern Nevada Health District Covid-19 vaccine distribution. He was the IC for the FEMA Northern Nevada mobile vaccination unit, spending 6 weeks traveling through the rural communities of Nevada delivering vaccinations.
Brian and his wife Lara have two beautiful daughters, Madelyn and Emma. Most family time is spent watching both girls play volleyball, cheering on the Nebraska Cornhuskers football and volleyball teams, and running the family dogs.