Biography

Michael Karl McNeil — former Fire Battalion Chief, industrial hygienist, and environmental health and safety professional. The full history, in my own words.

Before the fire service

Parts of this start well before anything a résumé would show.

Forestry

My degree is a Bachelor of Science in Forestry. The fire career began there, and it set the pattern for everything after: the work happens outdoors, the conditions are whatever they are, and the paperwork has to stand up years later.

The fire service years

Twenty-five years of my working life went to the fire service, federal and state. I served with the USDA Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Utah Division of Forestry and CAL FIRE, coming up through fire prevention — first as Fire Prevention Captain, then as Fire Battalion Chief for Prevention with the USDA Forest Service.

The assignments took me across the country, weighted toward the Western states, working under other states’ regulations and beside their agencies. I hold National Wildfire Coordinating Group qualifications as Incident Commander Type 3, Division/Group Supervisor, Task Force Leader, Strike Team Leader, Crew Boss and Engine Boss, with FEMA incident management training behind them.

Prevention is what produced the second half of my career. On one district I ran a hazardous materials site cleanup, put in hazard communication signage, safety data sheet information boards and right-to-know stations, and reviewed the district’s training records — work outside my position description, recognized with a USDA Forest Service Certificate of Merit. A second Certificate of Merit, signed by the Forest Supervisor in January 2006, covered fire prevention program coordination and a rewrite of the Forest’s hazardous materials training program. In June 2008 the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, U.S. Marine Corps, presented a Certificate of Appreciation addressed to “Fire Prevention Battalion Chief Mike McNeil.”

The complete qualification record sits on the fire service page.

Federal training

Federal fire prevention carries law enforcement authority. I attended the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center and held the National Wildfire Coordinating Group’s Forest Protection Officer qualification. The coursework ran through clandestine laboratory investigation, multijurisdictional counterdrug task force training, and medical defense against biological and chemical agents. That clandestine laboratory training is the foundation under the drug-lab decontamination and health and safety plan work I take on now, and I keep the recertification current. I remain a member of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

Emergency medicine

I certified as an EMT-Intermediate on the federal side, and in California I hold EMT-II certification together with tactical medic certification. BLS and ACLS provider certification was issued in August 2026 and runs to August 2028, and I keep continuing education current in tactical medicine, airway management, and fentanyl safety and naloxone response. I have also run medic coverage for youth football; one of the two written references I publish comes from that work rather than from a consulting engagement.

Graduate work and industrial hygiene

The Master of Science in Environmental Health is the hinge in this history. Fire prevention had taught me how a building fails and how an agency documents it; the graduate work put the exposure science underneath that — sampling, toxicology, ventilation, the standards and the methods.

Along the way I completed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Basic Inspector Course at the National Enforcement Training Institute and the EPA Watershed Academy’s watershed management program. The inspector course matters for a plain reason: much of my work is defending employers against citations, and I was trained the way the inspectors are trained.

Independent practice

I have worked in occupational health and safety since 1989, and McNeil Safety Consulting has been my independent practice since roughly 2005 — environmental health and safety, industrial hygiene, and forensic and expert consulting. The clients have come from construction, manufacturing, healthcare, film and television, and energy. Several engagements ran long enough to be jobs in all but name, embedded with the client’s own operations; client names are not published.

Through the pandemic I worked as a COVID health consultant on network television production, running testing and infection control for cast and crew, and the production closed with zero cases on set. More recently I have handled corporate environmental and EHS work on utility-scale energy projects — battery energy storage and solar generation, on the construction and commissioning side — in California, Washington, Colorado and New Mexico. Neither the employer nor the projects are named; programs written as an employee belong to that employer.

The current work is set out on the professional background page.

Writing and professional bodies

I am a contributor to the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine and a reviewer for the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. I have belonged to the National Fire Protection Association’s Research Section since February 2001, and I am a member of the National Association of Fire Investigators and its California section, of the local section of the American Industrial Hygiene Association, and of the North American Hazardous Materials Management Association.

Family

I am married to Zennin Sedacey-McNeil — Ellie. Her daughter Isabella is my stepdaughter.

Recognition

In January 2024 the U.S. House of Representatives issued a Certificate of Congressional Recognition for work with a local unified school district, citing “Heroic Diligence” and “Unwavering Dedication to the Safety of our Students and Community.” An earlier Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition, from May 2001, came out of a municipal volunteer recognition ceremony. Those, with the Forest Service and Marine Corps certificates and the written references, are on the recognition page.

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Fire service · Professional background · Credentials · Contact