CAL FIRE Riverside Unit Battalion Chief Hans Bolowich passed away on May 25, 2020, surrounded by his family, after a heroic battle with cancer.

Hans was born on December 29, 1963. His favorite hobbies included fly fishing, football, skiing, and wakeboarding. Hans played football for San Bernardino Valley College and later coached for Yucaipa High School.

Hans’s career in the fire service began in 1982, when he was a volunteer firefighter at Riverside County Fire Department Station 22 in Cherry Valley for five years. In 1985, Hans went to paramedic school and later worked for AMR (formerly Goodhew) Ambulance. In 2002, Hans was hired by CAL FIRE as a firefighter paramedic on Squad 84 in Temecula. He was promoted through the ranks to fire apparatus engineer paramedic and later to fire captain paramedic, before his Schedule B assignment at Anza Station 29. Finally, Hans was promoted to battalion chief in 2019, where he was assigned to Battalion 14.

Since 2005, Hans was an instructor at Moreno Valley College, teaching pharmacology to paramedic students until his illness. Hans held a bachelor’s degree in biology from Cal State San Bernardino. He is survived by his wife, Carla Bolowich; brothers, Konrad and Franz Bolowich; and sister, Heidi Jackson.

We will deeply miss Hans and will be here to support Carla and his family during this very difficult time. Hans was a highly respected member of our fire family as well as the EMS community.
–CAL FIRE Riverside County Fire Chief Shawn C. Newman.