GRAVETTE — Gravette has a new fire chief. Lonnie Mullen has headed the Gravette fire department only a little more than a month and, even though he is a world traveler, he says he and his wife are looking forward to settling down, becoming a part of the community and getting to know the people.
Mullen has been a firefighter almost all his life. A California native, he is from Big Bear Lake, in San Bernardino County. He graduated from high school in the small mountain community of Big Bear Lake. He joined the Marines about a year after graduation and spent two years in the military before returning to California where he says he "just sort of fell into" a job at the fire station.
Mullen's career as a firefighter began over 30 years ago. He worked with the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and was based in Riverside County, where he was stationed at various locations in the county, Moreno Valley, Bermuda Dunes and Anza, and was sent on responses throughout the state. He left CDF and spent a year at the City of Hanford before moving to contract firefighting. He also has experience fighting coal mine fires in southwest Pennsylvania, as late as 2003, big timber fires in Oregon and large refinery fires in the U.S., Middle East, Africa and Europe.
In 2004 Mullen traveled to Iraq, where he was among a group of civilian firemen who were part of the headquarters staff assigned to develop a firefighting force protecting military bases. In June, 2006, he moved to Louisiana and started specializing in refinery firefighting. Soon after arriving in Louisiana he was assigned to West Africa, where he worked in Equatorial Guinea for 3 1/2 years. During his time in Africa he worked with the Equatorial Guinean government in developing and training their fire department despite having no funding and equipment.
Mullen went to Germany in 2014 and started working with local fire departments training and splitting his time between Germany and Oman. In 2016 he left Germany to go to work in Oman, where he was employed by ORPIC, the Oman Oil Refineries and Petroleum Company. While in Oman, he was responsible for developing and training their firefighting force despite poor equipment which was replaced prior to his leaving.
Mullen has earned a number of awards in his firefighting career, including the Shell Motiva lifesaving award in 2007. He received a certificate of appreciation for his service in support of the Medical Task Force 67 mission in Operation Iraqi Freedom II. He was the fifth graduate of the International Organization for Industrial Emergency Response and Fire Hazard Management in Ireland on Aug. 30, 2016, and is also a graduate of the Institution of Fire Engineers in Ireland, the international organization for fire professionals.
Mullen's most recent honor was being made a member of the Order of the Sword and Shield academic and professional honor society on June 22, 2017. He noted that was almost the exact anniversary of the date he was first hired at a fire department, June 18, 1981, and said he felt he'd come a long way since then.
Mullen is studying online and is now in his senior year at Columbia Southern University in Alabama, working toward a bachelor of science in fire administration degree.
Mullen met his wife, Dawn, in Florida when he was captain on a Shell facility fighting oil fires at a refinery there. Dawn, a nurse, is a Louisiana native and graduated from high school in Slidell. They were married in August, 2006, in Florida.
The Mullens learned online about the opening for Gravette fire chief. Although they had never been to Arkansas, Lonnie was looking for a new position where he and Dawn could spend more time together. He said she has tolerated so much and lived life alone so much and he wanted to change that. He has a daughter, Michaela, 30, and a 10-month-old granddaughter in California who are moving here and he looks forward to spending more time with them. The job gives him an opportunity to have more time with his wife and family.
"We are feeling very blessed to be here, very fortunate," Mullen said. "I've been away from home a lot and my wife has made a lot of sacrifices for me to be able to further my career and do the things I believe in." He says he hopes to make up for that now.
Mullen has plans to upgrade the Gravette fire department. He noted that average response time to a fire call has already improved from 1 minute, 50 seconds, to 1 minute, 29 seconds. He says his main concern is the firefighters, their safety, and the public's safety. He plans to do more community outreach and hopes to further expand current programs.
Speaking of the fire department, Mullen concluded, "After all, we have to be our best on people's worst days."
General News on 10/18/2017