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Ogden City Fire Chief Mike Mathieu, pictured Thursday, July 10, 2025, is set to retire from the position Tuesday, July 15, 2025.

Rob Nielsen, Standard-Examiner

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Mike Mathieu has served as Ogden's fire chief since 1995 and joined the department in 1986.

Photo supplied, Ogden City

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Ogden City Fire Chief Mike Mathieu addresses the media Sunday, Jan. 26, 2025, following a construction site fire the previous night at 255 22nd St. in Ogden.

Ryan Aston, Standard-Examiner

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Ogden City Fire Department Chief Mike Mathieu and Mayor Mike Caldwell break ground on the brand-new fire station being built in North Ogden. The ceremony took place Monday, July 20, 2015, in North Ogden.

Brian Wolfer, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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OGDEN — Mike Mathieu has been a paramedic, a firefighter and — since 1995 — he’s served as chief of the Ogden City Fire Department.

But on the eve of his retirement, Mathieu told the Standard-Examiner he sees his leadership role in a different frame.

“I’m kind of like a gardener,” he said. “Plant some seeds, throw out some water, put out some fertilizer, pull a few weeds every once in a while and let the garden grow so people can admire it. What I mean by that is provide an environment for people that have self-initiative, that want to be successful, that want to work hard and want to hone their responsibility and be accountable; they get the opportunity to develop themselves in an environment where it’s conducive to do that, and it’s fair and equal to everyone in the fire department.”

Mathieu, who is set to step down from his role as fire chief on Tuesday, has helped to sow many seeds in the garden of first response in the Ogden community and beyond and has had the opportunity to watch those seeds grow into new safety initiatives, new protocol, new agreements, new equipment, new infrastructure and the newest generations of first responders.

He recently spoke with the Standard-Examiner about his time as fire chief and the road that brought him to the Ogden City Fire Department in 1986.

Ride alongs

The road started in the late ’70s in the unlikeliest of places — Grizzly Bear Pizza.

“I was working at a pizza joint in high school,” Mathieu said. “This paramedic unit used to come into Grizzly Bear and I got talking to a couple of the paramedics and I thought, ‘That would be a really kind of cool job.’ I got kind of interested and they said, ‘Why don’t you come out and ride with us?'”

He said that the work in what was a relatively new profession at the time wasn’t always the greatest.

“I was 17-18 years old and I went out and rode with them and went on a couple of calls with them,” he said. “They gave me some really distasteful work to do afterwards to take care of equipment and things that had been dirtied, soiled in the course of taking care of some critically ill patients. I got in there and did whatever was needed to be done and I kind of got the bug.”

From there, Mathieu attended Westminster College’s EMT program and got a job with Moss Ambulance in 1978 at the age of 18.

Starting in 1979, Mathieu worked for what was at the time the Weber County Fire Department and kept working there when it became the Weber Fire District in 1981. When the Weber Fire District’s paramedic program was transferred to Ogden City Fire Department in 1986, Mathieu became an employee of the department.

He said that, over time, he worked as a paramedic lieutenant, fire captain, medical chief, deputy fire chief and interim fire chief before taking over as the full-time fire chief in January 1995.

Evolutions

In over four decades of first responder service, Mathieu said he’s seen a lot of changes and evolution — especially in firefighting.

“We are really conscientious about the firefighters’ safety,” he said. “When I came into the fire service, command and control was not as clearly defined. … Fire trucks would show up, firefighters would think, ‘Well, let’s try this. What if we tried this? What if we try that?’ Now we have a very defined incident management system. One person’s in charge and if that person’s no longer going to be in charge, who’s going to be in command is going to be understood by everybody so we have a clear understanding of who’s in charge, who’s deployed, who’s in what we call IDLH (immediate danger to life and health) environments. We’re managing fire scenes much more safely.”

He said that also extends to the health and well-being of firefighters.

“The contaminants we’re potentially exposed to — we understand that much better,” he said. “The utilization of personal protective equipment, the turnouts, the self-contained breathing apparatus and all of the safety measures are being paid much more attention to. When I came in, it was expected to ‘eat smoke.’ It was just part of firefighting. We don’t do that anymore — those are contaminants. They can cause irreversible health damage, cancers, respiratory problems — that doesn’t happen anymore.”

Changes and growth have also become a running theme during Mathieu’s tenure as fire chief.

“In this position, in order to be successful, you need to have others buy in on what you’re trying to achieve, what you’re trying to accomplish and you need their help,”  he said. “It’s throughout, not only the city, but oftentimes it’s community partners like other fire departments, the 911 center, those that are doing the same kind of business that you’re doing — even our police department.”

‘Plant a seed and watch it grow’

Mathieu said even with the hard times, he looks back fondly on his experience as fire chief and as a first responder and that he’ll miss the profession.

“Did I have bad days? Sure I did,” he said. “Political, budgetary, administrative matters, personnel matters — those issues are not enjoyable, but they’re part of the job. But I look back and go, ‘I wouldn’t trade any of that for anything,’ because it helped me grow as a person. It helped me develop, hopefully, a better version of myself than I otherwise ever would’ve ever experienced because of the responsibility to the community to do this job the way it’s supposed to be done. I leave a little bit sad because I will miss it because I still love it, but it’s a good time for me to move on.”

However, he said he’s looking forward to retirement.

“What I’m going to do is try retirement for a while — a lot of hobbies, a lot of personal times with either family, grandchildren, projects and those kinds of things — and see where I’m at,” he said. “If I get bored, then maybe I’ll look to get back into something, but for right now, I don’t know what retirement’s like to experience and I think I need to walk that walk for a while and see what that means.”

As he walks away from 46 years in the first-responder profession, Mathieu noted that he believes he hired about everyone presently in the Ogden City Fire Department.

“What’s been most enjoyable is watching them mature and grow,” he said.

Among those hires is Deputy Chief Mike Slater, who has been nominated to succeed Mathieu.

“I was the chief when Mike Slater was hired,” Mathieu said. “He was one of our reservists and I hired him as a brand new firefighter. He’s now going to be the new chief. To be in the position to watch the development and growth of him and many others has been a really cool thing to see.”

He said it ties right back into his role as a gardener.

“Plant a seed and watch it grow — and he’s grown into the next chief and I wish him nothing but the best of luck,” Mathieu said.

The Ogden City Council will consider Slater’s appointment as chief during its regular meeting on Tuesday.