After only a few days on the job, Sedona Fire District’s new fire chief, Ed Mezulis, is settling in. Mezulis has been getting acclimated to his new role, juggling meetings, preparing for a SFD Governing Board presentation, gathering financial information, composing the Chief’s Report and formulating strategic plans and programs. He also has been invited to participate in a seminar for new fire chiefs this coming weekend. Whatever the task at hand, Mezulis says that he is ready.
On July 6, then-Sedona Fire Chief Jon Trautwein announced his retirement. During his walk-out ceremony on Thursday, Sept. 1, Trautwein passed the baton and swore in Mezulis, who stepped into his role as fire chief almost 22 years to the day the Sedona Fire District hired him on Sept. 5, 2000. Mezulis said that it feels as though he has been preparing for this assignment for the past 25 years and that throughout his years of service, there have been good mentors, past fire chiefs and industry folks who have encouraged him and pushed him along.
One of Mezulis’ greatest mentors was Assistant Fire Chief Jeff Piechura, hired by SFD in March 2016. Two years later, Piechura accepted a job with the city of Tucson, where he had spent his first 28 years as a firefighter. On July 10, 2021, Piechura was one of two people killed in a plane crash conducting visual reconnaissance over the Cedar Basin Fire in Mohave County. “The biggest shove I got was from Jeff Piechura,” Mezulis said. “He’s the one that really kicked me in the butt and said, ‘Go forward. You need to keep going.’ He supported a lot of us here at Sedona Fire.” Mezulis said that he is excited about the new opportunities ahead of him.
“It’s a recharge — 22 years is not a long career. But it’s a decent amount of time and to have a whole new set of challenges. I was micro-focused on a few of our divisions and to be able to branch out and learn more about our organization is exciting,” Mezulis stated.
Future Firefighter
Mezulis grew up in Tempe, and remembers his father taking him down to the fire station. “I remember, when I was in preschool, we walked down to the fire station, and they were out on a call.,” Mezulis said. “I was bummed. But then there was a house fire on my street, and a man perished — he had poured gasoline on his fireplace and it exploded. My dad took me down there the next day and explained to me why it’s dangerous and all that. From then on, I had an interest.”
Mezulis’ family comes from a long line of military folk. A grandfather was a police officer and the other was a radiologist who immigrated to the U.S. from Europe. His father was in nursing. Mezulis wanted to join the fire department and be a paramedic, however a few old-timers told him he wouldn’t get a job without any experience, so he joined the U.S. Navy. “I was [stationed] in San Diego. I lived in a gated community on the water in San Diego. That’s what I tell people,” Mezulis said. “But it was it was fun, it shaped my life. It gave me money for college, it gave me life experiences, a lot of friends that I still have to this day. By the time I was 21, I literally traveled around the world and gone to places I’ll probably never get to go to again. So, it was a good learning experience to expose a young kid from South Tempe to the culture and the world — it framed a lot of how I think about things today.”
After the Navy, Mezulis moved to Flagstaff for college. He worked for the Forest Service and came to Sedona in 2000 to assist on a fire. So he applied and got a job with SFD. “The military and fire and police service are all public service entities,” Mezulis said. “There’s a spirit of service. A lot of the formalities in the police and fire services came from military — we often refer to ourselves as a paramilitary organization and the rank-and-file structure. “What’s unique about the fire service is that rank-and-file, day-to-day is important for structure. Here at Sedona Fire, we really have a lot of family type values, and that rank-and-file is critical. “If there’s a house fire or major rescue, you need to have clear lines of communication and command …. At the end of the day I think having that structure aligned with the family values is a good mix and a good blend.”
Mezulis said that one of his biggest concerns is managing expectations from staff and the community. “Nothing we do is black and white,” he said. “I’ve had the sickest people I’ve ever met call 911 and when we get there, they tell us they’re fine. We don’t have all the tools and having the ability in 20 minutes to convince a stranger that they’re wrong, and they need to go with us. That’s what keeps our guys going is that challenge — recognizing and fixing a problem … so it’s just managing expectations. I think it’s where my courage ought to be.”
Family
Mezulis says his most courageous act is being a father to his three children ages 13, 11 and 5. “Just the totality of being a father has challenged me the most,” he said. “My son was diagnosed with diabetes at 20 months and that was my introduction to fatherhood. We were just getting out of the baby’s starting to walk [phase], and then we’re in an ICU.” As a paramedic, “just having the courage to be the guy for the people you love has been my biggest challenge,” Mezulis said. “As soon as you become a paramedic, you are your entire family’s medical professional. You’re supposed to know everything now.”
Mezulis says there is not a day that goes by that he doesn’t start it without talking to his children. “We start every day before school, when they’re going out the door, or if I leave before them, but I say ‘Do your best and wear a smile and just be kind,’” he said. “You have no idea what that stranger on the street is dealing with that day. “That’s what we learned intimately as firefighters, but if there’s anything I try to impart on my children is trying to teach them those lessons — that’s what is important to me,” Mezulis said. “The fun part is giving them all the tools to understand culture and that the world’s not a 25-mile radius of our house. You let them grow and see what happens. It’s kind of like planting a garden.”
Mezulis said his 13-yearold son made it clear that he will not be a firefighter. “I’m pretty blessed with great kids,” he said. “Most of why their great is because of my wife — she keeps them on track.” Mezulis met his wife 21 years ago while he was burning shirts in Oak Creek Canyon. “Your first year [as a firefighter] you’re on probation, you’re a ‘booter,’” he said. “Back then we issued our booters a red shirt to designate a recruit. So, Sept. 5 2001, we had a ‘getting off probation party’ and we burned our red shirts — as to symbolically say we’re off probation. “One of our new firefighters brought his girlfriend’s roommate down, and that was my wife.”
SFD Culture
Mezulis says that there are some advantages to working within the region and enhancing the culture of SFD. “We’ve been talking to the board and meeting with our regional partners, whether it’s law enforcement or other fire districts in the area, we recognize that the entire region is growing,” Mezulis said. “In some places, outpacing our service delivery — not so much in Sedona — but Camp Verde and Cottonwood are experiencing a lot of growth. So, culturally, we’re all in the same spot where we transitioned from volunteer to career fire departments … we recognize that there are some gaps in building those future leaders.” A leadership academy will begin next year in the Verde Valley. “I’m excited about really growing appropriately with our community,” Mezulis said. “At the same time, taking a more regional view of how we respond to emergencies and work together because done right, we could double our resources. We have a good mutual aid system now, but if we make it better, then it’ll be more fluid and if we’re low on ambulances, it’ll be a more fluid response to get another ambulance from another area, whereas now, it’s not as smooth. I think that’s going to be one of the big things with culture, is just bigger picture thinking.”
Fear and Courage
Even with all the experience and training a firefighter endures, Mezulis said he understands the dangers of his job — especially knowing the difference between fear and courage. “Fear is not having a comprehension of the unknown” Mezulis said. “I think that’s what drives fear — it’s a primal instinct coming in such as fight or flight. But I think fear in our profession, at least, is a healthy feeling to have.” “You shouldn’t be OK with going into a burning building,” he said. “You should be trained and prepared to the point where you have the confidence or the courage to do it. But you should never not be fearful because it is an austere environment.” “Same thing with our guys on our technical rescue team,” Mezulis said. “We’ve got six guys that will connect a 50-foot rope to the bottom of a helicopter that drags them throughout Sedona and if you’re not scared of that, if you’re not fearful of dangling under a helicopter, then you probably shouldn’t be doing it. “But you need to have the courage to do it because we need those people. You get that courage through proper equipment and training, which is why we fund those programs the way we do,” he said. “You should always have a piece of fear with everything you do, because if you don’t have a little bit of fear, then I don’t think you fully understand what you’re getting into.”
Mezulis recalled a rescue training scenario: “I was on our technical rescue team for a while, and I’ll climb any rock in Sedona. We did a lot of rope rescue training classes when we first started. But then we got into what’s called tower rescue. One of our trainings we climbed underneath and out to the middle of Midgley Bridge. That’s the healthiest fear I’ve ever had and I don’t know why. For some reason, I’m very comfortable with rocks, but this man-made structure — as trucks drive over and the whole bridge shakes — you’re out dangling off the middle of it. “That’s the most scared I’ve been here, and I don’t know why because we had all the great equipment and everything — I can’t explain it.”
Goals
In looking at his career, Mezulis said he feels that he has a good 10 years left. “It’s been a fast fun ride, and I enjoy this community and our group of folks that we’ve come up with,” he said. “I anticipate if planning goes right with family and life and balancing everything, [I have] less than 10 years left in my career.” “I think the most exciting thing for me is seeing the energy from our younger folks,” he said. “I was hired during a large building period in Sedona Fire. During the formidable years, we established ourselves as a career fire district. “A lot of those lessons and scars with some of our older staff members aren’t felt by our newer staff members and if I could be a part of teaching them about where we came from, and why we’re here,” he said. “Just seeing people prepare for the next step in their career, that would be a big deal for me.
Our entire management team is very senior, and they’re going to be leaving in the next couple of years. “Second to that,” he said, “there’s a lot of duplication of effort throughout the Verde Valley. As we grow, I think there’s some opportunities to ‘right size’ some stuff and get better efficiencies. If we could partner and do more things, it would be benefit our public and it would benefit the service itself.”
As Mezulis engages in the day-to-day aspects of his job, he is dedicated to train and develop new recruits . He participates in the Arizona Fire Chiefs Association, Arizona Burn Foundation, Arizona Diabetes Association and is on the Governing Board of the Valley Academy for Career & Technology Education. But the one thing that remains constant is his family. “It’s my friendships and purposefully I have a lot of legacy friends that I’ve had since grade school, and I recreate with them in my off time so that I don’t have this myopic view of the world,” Mezulis said. “But then I’ve also got a lot of really close friends that I made here, not only Sedona Fire, but throughout the fire service. “I’ve been involved in the labor union, and just a lot of those groups are full of firefighters,” he said. “So just having those networks and that web of support is critical for the job. But then the real part is my family. That’s what keeps me straight. We purposefully work towards making sure that we do things when we’re off together that provide memories. Family is what really keeps me on track.”
