Lance Vinson is the western director of the Fire Department Safety Officers Association (FDSOA). He is a 20-year veteran of the fire service, having started with a rural fire department where he served for seven years. Vinson began his first career assignment working as a firefighter at a DOE facility. The work done at this nuclear weapons plant gave him a greater understanding of strong safety culture, and also yielded a firm understanding of the industrial fire service. In April 2005, Vinson lost one of his friends in an LODD incident while responding to a structure fire. Following that event, he left the DOE facility, and began working for the Amarillo, TX, Fire Department, where he currently serves as the captain in charge of the Safety program.