Copyright Los Angeles Times
Fire Chief Dan Stefano, who’s steered Costa Mesa through crises while collaborating with city, county and state leaders to protect lives and property, will retire from the city at the end of December, marking 30 years of fire service. Officials broke the news in a release issued Friday, recognizing the public safety official for his guidance and oversight of Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue since his arrival as chief in 2013. “Chief Stefano is a true leader who is highly regarded, not only as part of our leadership team but both in Orange County and throughout the state, for his experience, leadership and courage,” City Manager Cecilia Gallardo-Daly stated in the news release. “I’m both proud and honored with the chief’s service to our community and his leadership in the city, and also his friendship.” During his tenure with the city, Stefano has been involved with numerous infrastructure projects, keeping the department’s Station No. 6 open and overseeing the rebuilding of stations 1 and 2, along with development of a regional training facility currently underway. The chief also played a pivotal role in implementing a revenue-generating ambulance transportation program, while enhancing the department’s community risk reduction, community outreach and volunteer programs, including the Community Emergency Response Team, Fire Cadets, Citizen’s Fire Academy and Fire Corps. Under his watch, the city of Costa Mesa collaborated with elected officials during the COVID-19 pandemic to transform the Orange County fairgrounds into a super site for testing and vaccine distribution and helped establish a joint emergency communications center and operations center between police and fire personnel. Stefano’s giving back to the community has been evidenced by his committed involvement in Motorhome Madness, an annual demolition derby of first responders and city officials held during the O.C. Fair to raise funds for Children’s Hospital of Orange County. In an interview Tuesday, the fire chief credited the city’s team spirit for the department’s successes over the last dozen years. “It all comes back to the relationships that have been built along the way,” he said. “We’ve accomplished a lot together.” Stefano reflected on his long career and passion for the job, which he discovered years after graduating from Orange Coast College and, later, University of Southern California while working a sales job in the Los Angeles area. Encouraged by older brother Robert, now deputy chief of operations for Orange City Fire Department, to spend 24 hours with a fire crew in the city of Westminster in 1994, Stefano accepted the challenge. “I did my first ride-along and was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you can actually do this for a career?’” he recalled. “I showed up in the morning and was literally thrown right into it. Within 10 minutes, we’re on a call — it was just, ‘Hey, it’s game time.’ I was seeing things I’d never seen up close and being part of that, having an impact.” Stefano, who grew up in Newport Beach, returned to Orange County from L.A. and began enrolling in the education and training necessary to turn what he’d experienced on that ride-along into a profession. He was hired by the Laguna Beach Fire Department in 1995 and worked his way up the ranks, from reserve firefighter to division chief before accepting the chief position in Costa Mesa. By that time, he’d earned a master’s degree in public policy administration from Cal State Long Beach and would later earn another master’s, a degree in executive leadership, from USC. Stefano’s arrival in Costa Mesa ended the consecutive short tenures of a string of interim chiefs who led the department through a massive reorganization as city officials considered outsourcing operations to the Orange County Fire Authority. Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue would thrive under his direction. Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens commended Stefano for demonstrating true leadership in difficult times. “[He] has led our community through tragedy and extreme public health and safety crises with skill and compassion — he is our rock, our Papa Bear,” Stephens stated in Friday’s release. “Costa Mesa is a better, safer place because of Chief Stefano.” A past president of the California Fire Chiefs Assn., and inducted into the group’s Fire Chief’s Hall of Fame in 2023, Stefano said Tuesday it was time for him to move on and make room for new leadership at Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue. “It lines out for the family,” he said of wife Michelle and daughters Sofia, 21, 19-year-old Siena and Sicily, 15. “[And] the timing is right for the organization and the city. There’s a time when you need to step out of the way, and it’s time for me to step out and for others to step in.” While he’s retiring from the city, Stefano hinted more may be on the horizon.
