By Sam Elliott
Chief Steve Orusa just celebrated his five-year anniversary of being in the head man in charge of the Fishers Fire Dept., but if you ask him he’s got plenty of people he reports to.
“I have 140 bosses,” he said of his department’s employees. “If you look at our organizational chart, it’s upside-down. I’m on the bottom. The most important people in our organization are the men and women who get off the fire trucks. When they commit themselves to harm’s way, their families are also committed to harm’s way. The most important job that we have as a staff is to make sure they have everything they need to be safe. That mission never ends.”
That flipped chart isn’t just theoretical imagery — inside the department’s annual report can be found FFD’s official organizational structure, with Orusa’s position at the bottom and the Fishers community at the top.
“Service goes up — the community is on top, then the people that get off the trucks — and accountability goes down, and I’m on the bottom because I’m accountable for everything,” Orusa said. “Having 140 bosses to serve, it’s a challenge, it’s exciting and I couldn’t dream of doing anything else. I love it, I love all them and I love the job.”
Orusa first came to Fishers as a deputy chief from the Chicago metro area — where he’d worked in every rank from firefighter to deputy chief — in 2010 and was named chief the following year, with his five years in charge accounting for nearly one-fifth of the department’s lifespan after transitioning from a volunteer to full-career department in 1989.
“The fire department I came from is 150 years old, so there’s a lot of blood, sweat and tears and lessons learned that you don’t have the benefit of when you’re only a generation old,” Orusa said. “Whether you’re 150 years old or whether you’re 25 years old, the organization is made by the people inside it. I’m not shy to say that the men and women on our fire department are some of the best on the planet.
“Externally, our customer and community can see that. They see the community paramedicine program, they see the mental health initiative, they see a safer, more effective and more efficient fire department and that happens because of the people and the organization,” he added. “But internally is what I’m most proud of. If you’re going to make progress, if you’re going to improve, if you’re going to get better year after year, you have to embrace change and leadership is a requirement for change … What our men and women have been able to do is instead of being focused inward on self, they’re focused outward on their mission and their values. They’ve created a culture that embraces change, that embraces getting better, that embraces improving, so now those men and women on our fire department have created changes as an institutional value.”
Orusa has also implemented and empowered his workforce to write its own mission statements and values, creating an ownership and vested interest for all inside the department’s seven stations.
The department’s strategic planning has been key over the years as Fishers has continued to grow, with Orusa and his team targeting and projecting that growth and what it means for the FFD.
“We’re being proactive in identifying where we need to increase staffing and fire stations. Obviously the northeast is one section, but also the northwest,” he said. “We were primarily a rural suburban community for a long time. Now we’re becoming a more urban interface, which means the risks and hazards mirror more of a larger city than a sprawling suburb. Anticipating that, we examine our strategic plan every year. It’s a flexible living document and that strategic plan drives our budget and it drives our staff meetings so we always know the destination and are on the right path.”
That strategic planning, research, analysis and the department’s performance has earned FFD recognition from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International. Less than one percent of fire departments in the country are internationally accredited, Orusa said, with FFD being one of just three in Indiana to make the grade.
“This is the most progressive, most impactful place I’ve ever worked,” Orusa said. “It’s the best job I’ve ever had … It’s so exciting to be a part of, especially for me because I’m in the twilight of my career. Having been around the block and seeing how other organizations and other city governments function, I believe I have a unique appreciation for what we have here today.
Coin collector
Among his office which includes quotes of inspiration and wisdom as well as a signed photo of sports idol Mike Ditka is a collection of unique coins that tell a story of Orusa’s 31-year career.
“Each one of these challenge coins has a history,” he said of one shelf of approximately 50 coins. “You work with people throughout your career and as a token of appreciation and friendship they’ll give you a challenge coin. All the people who have given me challenge coins I’ve worked with on different operations and we exchange those as a token of friendship and camaraderie and they bring back memories. I’ve got a couple from Israel, New York, Chicago, the FBI — I’ve been blessed to have a really cool career. I’ve been all over the world and I’ve been able to do a lot of different things.”
