'It's always been for the city'; Chief Joe Pronesti retires after 37 years with Elyria fire

ELYRIA — Most kids dream of being a firefighter at one point or another, but there truly never was any other choice for Elyria Fire Chief Joe Pronesti. Pronesti's last day with the Elyria Fire Department on Friday will mark the end of a 37-year career that began on July 2, 1989, shortly after his 19th birthday. On Monday, Capt. Joseph Vargo will be sworn in at City Hall to replace Pronesti as the next Elyria fire chief. Pronesti is the son and namesake of Joseph A. Pronesti, who spent 30 years with EFD and retired as a lieutenant a few years before his son was hired. "I've been chasing firetrucks since I was 2 or 3 years old," Pronesti said. "... It is all I ever wanted to do, and it is the only city I ever wanted to be a fireman in. I have truly lived my dream." Some of Pronesti's earliest memories are of the smell of his father's uniform when he came home from a fire and of the camaraderie among the firefighters he grew up around. Watching one of his dad's fellow firefighters made Pronesti's dreams really click into place. "I think the turning point for me was the Uncle Vic's building that was here," Pronesti said. "The first fire I remember actually going to." The building that would become known as Uncle Vic's was built in 1899. Along with the famous Uncle Vic's night club, it was home to several stories of apartments and more than a few fires over the years, including one Pronesti witnessed on July 22, 1976. "It was the first fire they had at that building," said Pronesti, who was 6 at the time. "It was a hot day, and my dad got called in." As they often did, the Pronesti kids wanted to watch their dad, and Joe's older sister, recently retired City Councilwoman Mary Siwierka, walked him over. By the time Pronesti arrived, his father was inside fighting the blaze. So, Pronesti fixed his gaze on fire Capt. Ray Pileski. "I just watched Ray go from one thing to the next," Pronesti said. "My dad always said 'Well, that's just because I was inside,' but I watched Ray, and I was just in awe. He saved the lives of two other firemen in that building that day. And he ended up going to the hospital." Seeing the teamwork and brotherhood of the responding firefighters, and the cool leadership of Pileski under pressure, inspired Pronesti not just to pursue firefighting, but leadership. It would not be the last fire to do so. "If I could go back in time, I would do it all over again," Pronesti said. "It's the best job in the world. But, there are bad days." Epitome of his leadership Pronesti said that one such bad day, more than anything else in his career, was what led him to leadership not just in the department, but in firefighting more broadly. "There was a fire that I think drove me to study, to be a leader and to know everything I could to teach it beyond just one area," he said. On May 16, 1993, two teenagers lit a home at Hillsdale Court and Mendel Court on fire. Pronesti said the boys had been seeking money from the stepfather of 8-year-old Ashley Bristow, and they had lit the family's living room on fire after removing Bristow's younger brother from the home. Bristow and her mother had been upstairs, and although her mother made it out, the 8-year-old had hid under a bed. "I will never forget it. We were in the hallway, and it was a furnace," Pronesti said. "It was truly — you don't want to embellish — it was bad. And she was right in that room, right by us, and we were told to get out. Ever since that day, I wanted to make it to where I knew everything I could about the job. I think about that little girl every May, since that day." Assistant Chief Dean Marks, who is also the president of the Elyria firefighter's union, said that Pronesti always took bad days personally. "This is his passion, and he does it for the right reasons," Marks said. "He is trying to be the best, make the department the best and make sure that we are providing the best service we can for the citizens to protect them. Both Joe and I grew up in this city and still live here. This is not just a job to us, this is really our community." It was almost exactly two years after Ashley Bristow died, in May 1995, Pronesti was promoted to become the youngest lieutenant in the department's history. In 1999, he became the youngest captain the department had ever had. Pronesti was named interim fire chief in 2008 and served in that job for six months, but when the city administration cut the department's budget and staffing, he resigned from the job and again became a captain. In 2015, Pronesti became an assistant chief and in October 2021 he was sworn in as chief. Though Pronesti's parents did not live to see it, and his mother was disappointed when he gave up the job in 2008, Joe's family held a picture from their wedding as he was sworn in. Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker, who was safety service director at the time, said he had seen Pronesti's leadership at work for years, but that it was most exemplified earlier that year, at the final of those many fires at Uncle Vic's. On Feb. 24, 2021, a day under five years before Pronesti sat down with The Chronicle to recount his career, two teenagers set a fire in the then-vacant Uncle Vic's building on Kerstetter Way. The blaze grew out of control quickly, and fire departments from across the area flocked to the city in an attempt to help save downtown Elyria. Leading them all, Brubaker said, was Pronesti. "Joe ran that scene as assistant chief for the 96 hours that we were dealing with that," Brubaker said. "He oversaw all the departments that came to town, he ran it like the seasoned veteran that he was. The decisions that he made with his guys and with our county partners saved buildings downtown. That was the epitome of his leadership." A return to form Marks said that as an assistant chief, Pronesti pushed hard to keep the department on the cutting edge of the latest training and technology and redoubled those efforts after he became chief. "(Pronesti) has always been a firefighter at heart, and a lot of the things that we have today are because of Joe," Marks said. "We have gotten new radios, vehicles, equipment. He has always had the best interests of the department at heart, you know? To make it the best department for the city of Elyria." One of the things that Pronesti said he is most proud of is returning the department's minimum staffing to 16 firefighters for the first time since those cuts in the late 2000s. Thanks to that staffing, the department is now operating four-firetrucks on a 24-hour basis for the first time since 2006. Pronesti also spearheaded a closer cooperation with the Elyria Police Department, and specifically oversaw the addition of tactical emergency medical technicians, or TEMTs, from Elyria fire to the Police Department's Special Response Team. In January, through a cooperation between Pronesti, Police Chief James Welsh and University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center, the department's TEMTs became one of the first crews in the state capable of doing blood transfusions in the field. Perhaps most important though, Marks said, has been the knowledge that Pronesti has shared with the department. "He is kind of like our historian," Marks said. "And it is not even that he just heard these stories, he was here, either as a firefighter or even as a kid when his dad was on the department. I think that is going to be the biggest thing that we will miss, all his stories of the past and all the history he knows. We are hoping he comes back, has coffee and keeps telling us those stories." A family business Growing up within the Elyria Fire Department, Pronesti said the firefighters "were like giants" to him, but it was his dad who stood the tallest in his mind. An exceedingly hard worker, the elder Pronesti balanced his job as a firefighter with owning and operating Pronesti Lawnmower Sales and Service. His shop and his home became popular gathering places for members of the department. "The guys would come to the house if they wanted to talk privately or talk about problems," Pronesti said. "My dad was a mentor, a leader in the department. He retired as a lieutenant, and while he did not have the rank, he was just that person that everyone went to. … As a kid, I was just in awe of the respect he had and of his buddies. It was just something I have always wanted to do." Even as he started looking to build a family of his own, Pronesti could not get far from the department where he grew up. Pronesti met his wife, Lori, at the retirement party of an older firefighter. Lori's father was Larry Fosselius, Joe's superior at the department. Pronesti was only 20 at the time, but said he wasn't keen to admit that to the slightly older Lori. His boss and future father-in-law Fosselius, apparently taking a liking to the young firefighter, did not "rat me out," Pronesti said. "That shows you how deep that brotherhood goes," he said with a smile. Lori's own connection to the department runs even farther back than Pronesti's, as her grandfather, Rothard Buterbaugh, was also an Elyria firefighter. Pronesti wore Buterbaugh's dress uniform, given to him by Lori's mother, for 25 years. "(Lori) deserves a lot of credit because she put up with a lot, and I owe her," Pronesti said. "You miss a lot of birthdays. There are a lot of proms and homecomings where the kids have to come to the Fire Department to take pictures with their dad. My wife is an incredible person, she grew up in this and I put a lot of bull---- on her, and I really owe her everything for it." Being a firefighter in the town one grew up and built a life in can create certain difficult situations, Pronesti said, such as he experienced when Larry Fosselius died in 2001. Fosselius suffered a heart attack and Pronesti, who had been on duty that night, had to perform CPR on his father-in-law and mentor. "Larry was a mentor and a hero to many, he did not have one enemy," Pronesti said. "... I think the passion that I have for EMS and wanting to progress us comes from having to do CPR on my father-in-law. Just a few years earlier, in 1997, Pronesti had also performed CPR on his aunt, Rose Pronesti, while on the job. Rose died just a few doors down from the Elyria Fire Station No. 4. At the time, fire engines were not automatically dispatched to medical calls and Pronesti did not arrive until LifeCare had called for assistance. "That really pushed me to do everything I could — even to the point where I have pissed people off — but it's always been for the city and the fact that I never wanted anybody to experience what my uncle, my family and my mom went through," Pronesti said. Today, a fire engine is dispatched to all medical calls requiring advanced life support in the city and every engine carries a firefighter trained as a paramedic. At 56, Pronesti said he does not know what his working future looks like, though he hopes to continue educating firefighters and serving the public. In the near future, Pronesti said, his focus will be on making up time with his family and enjoying his second passion in life, golf. Pronesti said he hoped that his fellow firefighters remembered him for fighting as hard for them as he did for the residents. "I wasn't the best chief, there is no way I was, I made plenty of mistakes," he said. "But, I guess I want my legacy to be that I would have done anything for those firemen and I always took care of them. I never forgot that my dad, my father-in-law and my wife's grandfather were firemen." Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.