By Sam Elliott
Fishers Fire Dept. Chief Steve Orusa spoke at the Fishers City Council’s March meeting to recognize the continued service of four long-time members of the department.
Steve White, Gregg Scheele, Jim Alderman and Mark Elder have been with the Fishers Fire Dept. for 25 years. They were the department’s first class of paid recruits.
“These four individuals represent more than 100 years of leadership on the fire department and at all levels — firefighter, division chief, battalion chief — and we’re very grateful for their service,” Orusa said.
White currently serves as one of the department’s three battalion chiefs.
“He’s also the fire chief of Jackson Township Fire Dept. and he’s an active instructor for Fire Engineering Magazine,” Orusa said. “He’s a resident of Fishers, member of the Holy Spirit of Geist Church and he has two daughters serving in the military.”
“Gregg is a resident of Fishers, he is a boat operator, a dive rescue specialists, a flash rescue technician and an engineer, which means he gets to drive the big red fire trucks,” Orusa said. “He has three kids with one grandchild, and two are serving in the United States Marine Corps.”
“Jim is a division chief and he’s also our logistics chief. He manages everything from Band-aids to fuel to fire trucks,” Orusa said. “He’s smarter than our average firefighter, too, because he’s also our IT specialist. So when the fire chief doesn’t know how to use his computer or his phone, Jim is always there to help — that’s why his office is next to mine.”
Elder’s current role is as the department’s planning chief.
“He plans everything for the fire department from the budget to the deployment of teams. He also handles a lot of our administrative duties and personnel records,” Orusa said. “Mark is a resident of Fishers, he’s a Mason, a Shriner and Rotarian. He gets the credit for modernizing our emergency management administration offices in Fishers and modernizing our budget.”
