Fire Chief David Lantzer entered the fire service in 1987 as a reserve firefighter for the City of Holtville but really cut his teeth serving Calexico from 1990 to 2004. There he held the positions of firefighter/paramedic, acting engineer, and captain. He returned to Holtville as fire chief in 2004 and moved onto Hermosa Beach in Los Angeles County in 2008. He served as fire chief there until going to the City of Murrieta in 2015, serving almost four years as the deputy chief with Murrieta Fire & Rescue before his promotion to fire chief in July 2019. David retired in October 2021, but couldn’t stay away and now serves as fire chief for the City of Imperial in his role as county fire chief since August 2023.

Chief Lantzer earned a master’s degree in public administration from San Diego State University and a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Long Beach (CSULB).  He is a graduate of the Executive Fire Officer Program at the National Fire Academy, the Los Angeles Fire Department Leadership Academy (West Point curriculum) and is a credentialed Chief Fire Officer through the Commission on Professional Credentialing (part of the Center for Public Safety Excellence, or CPSE). The past 13 years he has serve as an accreditation peer assessor (the last four years as team leader) for the Commission on Fire Accreditation International (CFAI), which is also a part of CPSE. As an accreditation manager, he guided Murrieta Fire & Rescue toward accredited agency status in 2017.

Chief Lantzer has served as the president of the Imperial Valley Fire Chiefs Association and Secretary of the Los Angeles Area Fire Chiefs Association and Riverside County Fire Chiefs Association.

He has been married for 34 years to his soulmate, Juana, and they have two sons. One served in the Marine Corps (and still works with USMC as a contractor) and another is still serving in the US Army. David and Juana have four grandchildren, three handsome boys and a beautiful girl. They also have a third child who still lives at home: he is a 12 year old miniature poodle named Jake!