About MARS

Agency & Community Experience

Our staff and leaders have professional experience dealing with municipal, county, state, and federal EMS, Fire/Rescue, and Law Enforcement agencies, both locally in Northern California, and across the nation. Examples include extensive experience with the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Federal Rangers, local and state Offices of Emergency Services, American Medical Response, San Francisco Fire and Police Departments, Oakland Fire and Police Departments, and numerous municipal or county departments involved in permitting, public health, and planning.

Our staff and leaders also have personal and professional experience with many of the key communities we serve. Many of those communities are connected with art, music, raves, and Burning Man.

Joseph Pred, Owner


Joseph Pred
Joseph Pred has been working in public safety since 1989 and has actively specialized in public safety with special events and temporary mass gatherings since 1993. In addition to owning and managing Mutual Aid Response Services (MARS) since 2000, Joseph has been been the Emergency Services Operations Chief for Burning Man since 1996. As Emergency Services Operations Chief he is responsible for all public safety services including emergency medical services (EMS), medical clinics, fire fighting, rescue, HAZMAT, mental health, 911 dispatch, and the communications infrastructure for the months before, during, and after the week long event in the middle of the Black Rock Desert. Because of his expertise in the field, Joseph was appointed as a Commissioner on the San Francisco Entertainment Commission in 2003, holding the public health seat, and was reappointed for an additional four year term in 2005. Finally, he is also a consultant for Medical Event and Doctor Services, a company based out of Fresno that provides similar services to MARS covering the Central Valley and Southern California. Joseph has also served as a Field Supervisor for American Medical Response ambulance and as a Field Supervisor for AHSEM event management.

Joseph holds a BS in Management and has been a licensed EMT since 1993. He also has multiple specialized certifications, including Special Event Contingency Planning, EMS Command School, and Rapport Leadership International's Master Graduate (3rd Degree) programs. Joseph additionally holds a cumulative concurrent experiential background of over 20 years in emergency management, including additional training and experience in crisis intervention, mental health, law enforcement, dispatching, communications technology, and fire fighting.

When not working Joseph enjoys DJing as a hobby, notably at the Bambuddha Lounge and as a member of the Hookahdome collective.

David Barr, Washington State Supervisor

David Barr has been an EMT since 1990 and a Firefighter since 2002. In addition to working with MARS as a Supervisor and EMT, David currently volunteers with South Kitsap Fire & Rescue, a department whose district covers the southern third of Kitsap County, WA. Since 1990 David's professional experience includes working for American Medical Response as both an EMT and a Dispatcher as well as extensively volunteering for the American Red Cross and the Milpitas Fire Department.

David has also been part of the Burning Man Emergency Services Department (ESD) since 1998, and currently serves as the ESD Planning Section Chief and holds the rank of Battalion Chief. His role with ESD includes overseeing units in the field as well as applying his EMS and Fire Fighting skills.

David holds a BA in Economics and is certified to the highest level of the Incident Command System: ICS 400. His skill set includes communications infrastructure, dispatching, text and video documentation, and incident/event management.

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