Clive Savacool has a hard time sitting still.
For the first time in years, he only has one responsibility—running LogRx, the narcotics tracking app he co-founded for paramedics—instead of countless demands as a fire chief.
“As a fire chief, you’re always in crisis mode,” says the 44-year-old who lives in Sierra Oaks after resigning from South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue last May. “Every day is a form of damage control. You can make great progress forward, but your to-do list is going to be bigger at the end of the day no matter how much you get done.”
Savacool always thrived in high-pressure situations. He says, “The fire service is the kind of career where if you’re willing to go above and beyond, no one holds you back.” From his start in Contra Costa County, he swiftly moved up the ranks.
When Savacool sustained lung damage from a fire in 2011, he created an app called Exposure Tracker. The health and safety program helps firefighters track their exposures to create a medical history they can reference throughout their careers. The app was acquired by a software company in Indiana.
A side interest stimulated Savacool’s tech ambitions. He raced motorcycles and had just won a 2019 American Federation of Motorcyclists championship when a crash sidelined him in 2020.
A fellow racer ran a startup and regaled Savacool with tales of traveling the world to work with clients such as Ducati.
Savacool got jealous—and involved. He started consulting with mobile incident command software company Tablet Command, where he met startup guru Skye Thompson. The two hit it off and partnered on LogRx. The company assists paramedics who must track the narcotics they dispense during medical emergencies.
“LogRx had always been on my mind because everywhere I’d worked, we’d done narcotics tracking on pen and paper,” he says. “I started LogRx in 2016 as a side project to see what I could do with it. But in 2019, I really pushed it forward when I realized how much need is out there.”
When LogRx took off, Savacool was still serving as a fire chief, first at Garden Valley Fire Protection District in El Dorado County and then at South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue. During his time in Tahoe, he secured permanent funding to keep fire houses open, upgraded the agency’s dispatch system and led the region through several natural disasters, including the Caldor and Tamarack fires and a major snowstorm in December 2021.
As LogRx gained clients, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Savacool found himself burning out. He realized he “had to pick one.” He left the fire service and hasn’t looked back.
“I didn’t realize how long my brain had been in crisis mode,” he says. “I got so much gray hair, especially over the last year, that my wife says it’s like now I’m reverse aging. It’s been a relief not to have that kind of burden, but my brain is still adjusting to having just one thing to focus on. I can’t sit still.”
For more information, visit logrx.com.
Jessica Laskey can be reached at jessrlaskey@gmail.com. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram: @insidesacramento.
