The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
PASSING THE TORCH
Retiring Dec 31, Fire Chief Mark Mlachak reflects on legacy of service
“When I took over I wanted to try and take this department back to the community and let people know this isn’t my department, this is not the city’s department. This department belongs to the residents.”
Mark Mlachak has spent the past 38 years serving in Painesville as a firefighter, water rescue instructor, technical rescue coordinator, shift lieutenant, department training officer, and fire chief.
And if that weren’t enough, he’s most recently been moonlighting as city archivist.
“I find the history of this department fantastically amazing,” Mlachak says while sitting beside a stack of peeling, leatherbound city records in his office. “Once I digitize the (records) we can make them all searchable. It starts in 1916, I’m up to 1970, so far.
“I’ve taken a step back and allowed Captain (Tom) Hummel to run everything on a day-to-day,” he added. “I’m here if he needs me, but now I have time to do stuff like this. I’ve started a ‘on this day in history…’ on the department’s Facebook page. There’s so much in this city that’s gone. I’m finding streets I’ve never heard of.”
All the more memorable were emergencies he was involved in battling. He lists them off as a hardened general would tick off border skirmishes.
“There was the Colony Lumber fire of ‘88, there was Java Joe’s fire in ‘96 which happened just after I got promoted to lieutenant,” Mlachak said
He recounts the 1985 Super Bowl Sunday fire with its -30 degree wind chill, the flood of 2006, the Steele Mansion fire of 2001, The 2007 CSX train derailment which they had to leave to smolder for three days, the 2003 blackout where he had to cut short his wife’s birthday plans as unexpected duty called.
“Different fires stand out for different reasons,” he said. “The City Hall dome fire that happened in 2011 stands out because it was my day off. I remember pulling up thinking, ‘oh great, City Hall is going to burn on my watch.’”
A career lined with excitement and heroism came from the Marine Corps.
“My wife did not like the military life so I decided to get out, but I’m an adrenaline junkie,” Mlachak said. “When I was in the military I used to jump out of airplanes so I didn’t want to work a 9-to-5 job or in a factory. I had to ask what was left.
“It came down to being a police officer or firefighter,” he said. “Remember, I grew up in the 1960s so it came down to this, and this is the God’s honest truth, if I became a police officer I was going to have to arrest too many of my friends on drug charges, so I decided to be a firefighter.”
Mlachak feels his history in the military offered crucial training for his transition into firefighting, instilling him with an innate confidence necessary to keep his head in the hot seat.
“You train, but you can’t train for confidence,” he said. “Coming out of the (military) service gives you a little up on that.”
With no background and little preparation, Mlachak would need that confidence to buoy himself through his initial years as a firefighter where he learned the ropes in the heat of the moment.
“I had no idea when I started in 1980,” he said. “There was no prerequisite. When I went to the Marines, I went through boot camp and they told you what they wanted you to know. I came in here and they just gave my gear and said ‘Okay, that’s where you sit. When you go to a fire, you’re with him.’ It was nervous but exciting.”
Mlachak rose from firefighter to lieutenant in 1995 before being sworn in by then City Manager Rita McMahon as chief in 2002.
“I was born and raised here. I took a pay cut to take this position,” he said. “It wasn’t about pay, it was about being able to give back to the community.”
He was determined to use his new role as chief to course correct the department’s relationship with the rest of the city.
“When I took over I wanted to try and take this department back to the community and let people know this isn’t my department, this is not the city’s department. This department belongs to the residents,” he recalled. “I want them to stop in and talk to us. The most rewarding feeling is being able to do just that.”
While largely positive, Mlachak won’t miss his friction with the firefighters’ union.
“I’m often stuck between a rock and a hard place,” he said. “You have the union on one side and the city on the other. My job as fire chief is, number one to represent the residents of the city, number two is the city itself. I also have to look out for my people.
“I do not negotiate for the union,” he continued. “When I took over, I had been union president and people thought the union was going to run the show. That was a big challenge.
“Maybe the biggest challenge was when I reinstituted part-timers,” he said. “We took great pride in being a full-time department. We weren’t going to expand the department where we needed it with full-time people. In order to get more staffing we had to go to part-timers. You can imagine how the union felt about that.
“There was a struggle,” he reflected candidly. “I felt I was very much disliked. That can be a tough position. I was doing what I thought was best for the city, the residents, and for my department.”
The retiring chief worked with current City Manager Monica Irelan to help her appoint his successor, Tom Hummel. Mlachak then began thorough on-the-job training with Hummel, determined to help prepare him for success.
“He’s been for a year-andhalf learning the ropes,” Mlachak said. “He’s running the department right now, I’m still ultimately responsible if something happens, but he’s here learning already. He comes with experience and shares a desire and care for this department. I think he’s got everything it takes, the knowledge, the background. It all comes down to the transition.”