Harold Schapelhouman
Menlo Park Fire Department

Harold Schapelhouman is a 25 year veteran firefighter with the Menlo Park Fire Protection District. He is currently assigned to Fire Station 1, as the Division Chief in charge of Special Operations, which includes all District Specialized preparedness efforts, the Local and State Water Rescue Program, as well as the Local, State and National Urban Search and Rescue Program (US&R).

Harold is the Task Force Leader in charge of California Task Force 3, one of the eight California Urban Search and Rescue Teams, and one of the 28 Federal Department of Homeland Security (DHS/FEMA) Teams. He was involved with the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, 1992 Hurricane Iniki which struck Hawaii, 1994 Northridge Earthquake which struck Los Angeles, the 1995 Oklahoma City Terrorist Bombing, the 1997 and 1998 California Floods, the 1999 Chi Chi Earthquake in Taiwan, the 2001 World Trade Center Terrorist Attack, 2002 Winter Olympics preparedness efforts in Salt Lake City, recovery of the Space Shuttle Columbia Astronauts 2003, 2004 Republican National Convention Security Detail, Hurricanes Charlie, Frances and Ivan, Hurricane Katrina with response to New Orleans for Water Rescue and most recently Hurricane Wilma where he served as the South Eastern Branch Chief in charge of FEMA US&R Operations for the Florida Keys, Dade County, and Miami.

Harold Chairs the California State FIRESCOPE US&R Working Group, as well as the State¡¯s US&R Training Working Group. He is a past member FEMA¡¯s National Training Working Group as well as the Public Affairs Working Group and served as the Western Regional Coordinator for the National Task Force Leaders from 1999 - 2004. He serves as a Technical US&R Specialist in the Federal US&R Incident Response System on the Blue Team.

Harold is a certified California State Rescue Instructor. Each year hundreds of individuals from throughout the United States and other countries are taught at the Fire Districts specialized Structural Collapse Training Center where he serves as the lead instructor and program coordinator. In addition, he is also an Instructor with the College of San Mateo where he teaches Fire Technology.

Harold has held the positions of Firefighter, Dispatcher, Engineer, Rescue Driver, Truck Driver, Fire Investigator, Station Captain, Staff Captain, Training Captain, and Acting Battalion Chief until being promoted to the Division Chief of Special Operations.