Kevin Wise officially hanged up a career in fire service on Monday, Dec. 1, leaving behind a distinguished 26 years of making safer the communities he served.

Wise left his post as Modesto Fire chief but he also was the fire chief of Ceres and every city contracting with Modesto for fire services, including Oakdale.

Serving as interim fire chief is Shanon Evans who began his fire career at Westport Fire Department in 1998 as a probationary firefighter. The Modesto City Council will deciding who to replace Wise in six to 11 months, according to Assistant Fire Chief Andrew Hunter.

The transition is taking place at a time when the cities of Ceres and Modesto will be negotiating a new contract for fire service. Hunter expects Modesto to bring its presentation to the Ceres City Council in late January or early February. The current five-year contract is scheduled to expire on June 30, 2026.

The biggest issue will be the anticipated increases for a city already scrambling to prepare for serious budget cutting for the 2025-26 budget cycle.

Ceres may have no choice but to accept the contract figures calculated by Modesto. Very few jurisdictions who give up fire service to another agency can afford to take it back.

“It has been done in the past with other entities that they’ve gone back on their own,” said Hunter. “Anytime they make a decision there’s good consequences and bad. From the Modesto Fire Department’s perspective continuing that relationship with Ceres is a huge benefit to both the city as well as the city of Modesto, and to the firefighters and the public.”

Wise said he felt now was a good time to retire in order to spend more time with his family, including helping out his son who races in professional motocross competitions around the country.

The chief’s personal health battles were also a factor in the timing of his retirement. Wise has battled Acute Myeloid Leukemia – which is now in remission – but he also undergoes once a month treatment for Multiple Myeloma, a cancer that affects plasma cells, a type of white blood cell in the bone marrow.

“That’s a little piece of it and looking out I just don’t want to work till I get sick and then can’t work or can’t enjoy retirement.”

He said the reoccurrence of cancer is a fear always in the back of his mind.

“I’ve had relapses in the past, so that’s definitely a consideration I’ve had.”

Wise began his firefighting career volunteering for six years until being hired for a paid position 21 years ago. He earned his associate degree in Fire Science from Modesto Junior College in 2004 and his bachelor’s degree in Fire Administration from Cogswell Polytechnical College in San Jose. He spent time working for Oakdale and Woodland Avenue fire departments and in 2012 joined Stanislaus Consolidated Fire Department. Wise attended the National Fire Academy’s executive fire officer program from 2014 to 2018.

When Ceres ran its own fire department, Wise became its fire chief in 2019 to replace Bryan Nicholes who retired. His tenure was short lived for he left in 2021 to become deputy fire chief for the city of Fremont. Modesto Fire hired him and returned Wise to Stanislaus County. When the city of Ceres decided to contract for fire services with Modesto, Wise again technically became Ceres’ fire chief.

Wise believes Ceres made a good decision to merge with Modesto Fire.

“Obviously we’ve been able to increase the level of service over the last four years and getting that paramedic on Engine 15.”

The Local EMS Agency has allowed Modesto to improve Advanced Life Support services in Ceres.

“So literally, we could have a paramedic on every piece of apparatus, in Ceres, which having a paramedic is crucial, you know, really for our medical response and really increases that level of service.”

That’s crucial when you consider that Ceres sees more than 6,000 calls each year and about 75-80 percent are medical aid calls.

Staffing levels have also increased under the Modesto contract.

“We’ve been able to put four firefighters on our truck company. And so previous to the contract, we only had three firefighters. So we maintain a minimum staffing with four firefighters there.”

Wise noted that a four-story training tower has just completed at the Service Road fire station in Ceres with the financial assistance of fire agency partners. They include the cities of Ceres, Modesto and Turlock, as well as Stanislaus County, Stanislaus Consolidated and Modesto Junior College.

“It’s really complimented the training site out there. It’s going to really benefit all our firefighters.”