Hundreds Celebrate Life of Former Santa Barbara Fire Captain Tony Pighetti 

As many as 200 people took to the waves for a Sunday paddle-out to celebrate the life of Tony Pighetti, the 59-year-old former city firefighter, union chief, and mental health advocate for first responders, who died while paddling out the night of October 9. Another 400 congregated on the beach in front of Santa Barbara City College. 

Although Pighetti retired five years ago — having achieved the rank of captain in charge of training — he spent the past five years working to create a countywide peer support counseling system so that first responders dealing with the aftershocks of the job could get no-questions-asked mental-health and safety counseling for both on-the-job and off-the-job issues. 

Santa Barbara City Fire Chief Chris Mailes recalled Pighetti approaching him and other department leadership to discuss better mental-health maintenance. “We’re supposed to be the strongest people in the room,” Mailes said. “But the job takes a toll. Gone are the days when you just go out and have a beer and suck it up.”

Mailes said Pighetti was assigned the job. As a result, the City of Santa Barbara now has 10 firefighters who are trained in the arts of peer support, plus one person assigned to play the lead role. 

“Without a doubt, he saved lives. And he saved marriages too,” Mailes said. 

When Pighetti retired in 2020, he was hired by the nonprofit association of the fire chiefs from Guadalupe to Carpinteria. Every department, Mailes stated, soon had their own peer support team and lead player. Thanks to vigorous fundraising and private donations, Pighetti could be paid a stipend and a contract team of trained counselors retained. Treatment was offered for everything from work-related acute and cumulative trauma to marital friction and sick kids at home. If there was a particularly hairy call, peer support teams wouldn’t wait to be called — they’d reach out to the affected individuals to proactively check in. 

Pighetti was “calm, levelheaded, a gentle soul, and an exceptional trainer,” Mailes said. 

During his final years, Pighetti struggled with an array of health challenges, migraines being just one of many. Even so, Pighetti’s body somehow allowed him to find peace and release while paddling out on a paddleboard that he would have been denied hiking, running, or riding a bike.