Rescue chief, 53, is calling it quits
Chesterfield County head of fire and medical services spent 31 years
serving
public
BY MEREDITH FISCHER
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Monday, August 16, 2004


 

While the other children were playing and laughing during recess, Steve
Elswick was busy washing dishes in the lunchroom.

Dressed in his cousin's hand-me down clothes, three sizes too big, the
Grundy grade-schooler would scrape trays and clean tables to pay for
lunch.

"It made me feel like I was not good enough," Elswick said.

Those early-childhood memories stayed with Elswick, forcing him to work
harder and want more.

It gave him the drive to succeed.

Nearly a half-century later, the 53-year-old Chesterfield County fire
and emergency-medical-services chief is calling it quits.

He built a career, spanning more than three decades, in public safety.
Starting in 1970 as a volunteer firefighter in Bensley, he was hired by
Chesterfield in 1973; over the course of 31 years, he rose through the
ranks, becoming the department's chief in 1998. This year, after a
lifetime spent proving himself, Elswick plans to retire.

His last day will be Nov. 1.

"I want to enjoy life," Elswick said. "I am ready to start a new chapter."

Elswick's humble beginnings inspired him. Growing up the son of a coal
miner
and living in a four-room house with his parents and four siblings 10
miles
from the Kentucky border, Elswick knew he didn't want to work in the
mines.

He left Grundy in his 1964 Ford Fairlane at 19 with $70 in his pocket
and
all of his possessions in the trunk.

At the time, he had plans to attend pipe-fitting school in Roanoke.

He never made it.

Elswick never found the person he was supposed to meet at the school and
jumped back in the car and drove to Richmond. He moved in with his aunt
and
started working for the Reynolds Metals Co. It wasn't until a year later
that he found his passion.

He went on a fire call with the Bensley Volunteer Fire Department.

"That was when I knew it was all I wanted," he said. "It intrigued me.
The
challenge to help people. It was different."

Anyone who knows Elswick knows that passion sometimes gets him in
trouble.

He is often outspoken when it comes to his firefighters.

"He's always been committed to making sure the firefighters had what
they
needed to do their jobs safely," said Pete Svoboda, Chesterfield
firefighter
and head of Chesterfield Professional Firefighters Association Local
2803.

Even though Svoboda and Elswick have not always agreed on all issues,
Svoboda said "he was always willing to sit down with me and talk."

During Elswick's time as chief, firefighter salaries increased more than
 45
percent, bringing the starting salary of a new firefighter to $32,000,
county officials said.

The department has also grown in size, from 300 firefighters in 1998 to
413
in 2004. The county has also opened three new fire stations - Centralia,
Winterpock and Rivers Bend - during Elswick's tenure and plans to open
another along Courthouse Road later this year. He will be difficult to
replace, County Administrator Lane B. Ramsey said.

Ramsey said he will not begin the process of looking for a new chief
until
October.

"Chief Elswick is one of the most dedicated, sincere and honest people I've
ever worked with," Ramsey said. "During his time as chief he has raised
the
level of service and performance of the department to a new level."

Ramsey added that he considers Elswick "a close personal friend."

Elswick has also endeared himself to board Chairman Kelly E. Miller.

Miller and Elswick became good friends several years ago after Federal
Express driver Eddie Heussler risked his life trying to rescue an
elderly
woman trapped in a fire in her Chesterfield home. Unable to save her,
Heussler sustained burns over much of his body. He nearly died. Together,
Elswick and Miller visited Heussler. They honored him at county meetings
 and
followed his complete recovery, helping to raise money to cover his
medical
expenses.

"You could see his compassion," Miller said of Elswick. "He's just a
wonderful guy."

During his time as chief, Elswick has had to tackle some tough political
issues, including a proposal to charge for ambulance rides.

Called "Revenue Recovery," the program was initially met with plenty of
hesitation and concern, especially among the county's senior residents.

"I wasn't going to give up," Elswick said. "But it was not popular."

Three years later, the program has been deemed a success, netting $1.8
million annually to offset fire and EMS costs. Eight other jurisdictions
 are
planning to model their billing systems after Chesterfield's.

But there were some challenges Elswick could not overcome.

To this day, he tears up when talking about volunteer firefighter
Bradley
McNeer, killed in the line of duty, on Elswick's watch.

"That was my biggest low," Elswick said. "It still lays heavy on my
heart.
The hardest thing for a chief is to lose a firefighter. It's hard to
know
until you have been there."

Tough and competitive, Elswick is always working. He wakes up at 3 a.m.,
 his
mind running through calls.

There are been countless dinners when Elswick's wife, Lisa Elswick, will
 be
talking, knowing her husband is deep in thought about a fire station or
a
firefighter or a phone call he has to make.

"She always understands me and my pressures," Elswick said. "She has
spent a
lot of lonely nights and weekends, when I am at meetings. And she always
understands, it's my job. It's my responsibility."

Elswick said he has always remained a country boy at heart. He loves
country
bluegrass music and attends fiddler's conventions and NASCAR races.

He calls his parents Ma and Pa and still remembers waking up with his
father
at 4:30 a.m. to put wood in the stove at the mountain church his parents
have attended their whole lives.

"They are good mountain people," he said of his parents.

They are deeply religious and very respectful of authority, so much so
that
when Elswick came home from school one day with a teacher's handprint
across
his face for "cutting up," Elswick's father took matters into his own
hands.

It's a story that tells much about Elswick's upbringing.

"He took me to my bedroom and whipped me," Elswick said chuckling. "He
never
knew what I did, but he knew I must have done something for the teacher
to
slap me."