Wheeling Deputy Fire Chief Steve Mella retires after 31 years

Wheeling Deputy Fire Chief Steve Mella has retired after more than 31 years with the organization.

Mella was publicly honored during the Nov. 2 village board meeting for his service. Fire Chief Scott Salela made some remarks and then presented Mella with a red-and-white honorary street sign bearing Mella’s name.

Salela described Mella as a dedicated firefighter who loved the job.

“It is an honor to have worked with him,” Salela said. “He’s done an outstanding job.”

Mella joined the department as a paramedic in 1995. In addition to serving with the Wheeling Fire Department, he was a member of a Mutual Aid Box Alarm System task force that responded to the Gulf Coast region after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and to North Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018.

In a 2018 interview, Mella described how he and other firefighters used an inflatable, motorized boat to get to homes in Riegelwood, North Carolina, so they could search for storm survivors. Some houses were submerged to the roofline.

“It was surreal,” Mella said at the time. “We took the boat to rooftops, banged on the roof to see if anyone was in the attic and then marked the building.”

Mella had served as the Wheeling Fire Department’s deputy chief since 2020, after 14 years as a lieutenant.

Mella expressed thanks to village officials, the chiefs he’s worked with, other village employees, and “my brothers and sisters on the fire department.”

“I couldn’t have hoped for a more rewarding, fun, heartbreaking at times but just incredible experience,” Mella told the crowd, which included many firefighters as well as Mella’s wife and daughter. “I can’t imagine what (else) I would have done the last 31 years.”

Acting Lt. Nicholas Tomeczko, who’s also the department’s medical officer, has succeeded Mella as deputy chief. Tomeczko was introduced to the public at the Nov. 2 meeting.

Tomeczko joined the department as a firefighter/paramedic in 2010 and has served as medical officer since 2011.

“He knows this department, he knows this community and he has earned the trust of the people he will now lead,” Salela said in a news release.

Tomeczko was selected through an internal promotion process, according to the release.

“Promoting from within our own department speaks to the talent we have here, and our community is in good hands,” Village President Pat Horcher said in the release.

rlissau@dailyherald.com