He didn’t wear a cape on his back or an “S” on his chest, but Lou Vargo was referred to as something of a “Superman” since the day he became a firefighter at age 16.
It didn’t matter if he was working as a firefighter, an anesthesiologist, a paramedic, or as the director of Ohio County’s Emergency Management Agency; Vargo was in the middle of critical conditions and conversations for the five decades.
But it was never about bravery – not on the surface anyway – when Vargo began his public service career in his native Mount Pleasant, Ohio; when he started working with the late-great fire chief Cliff Sligar to develop what evolved into an EMT division of the Wheeling Fire Department; or while he responded to local or regional tragedies in the Upper Ohio Valley.
“I’ve never looked at it that way, and I think I speak for all first responders— fire, EMS, law enforcement, everybody – when it comes to bravery,” Vargo said. “I think when you look at this profession, it has to be in your DNA that you want to help people and everything. It’s just an exciting profession, but it has to be for you.
“You have to want to help people; you have to want to learn how to do things like putting out fires and saving lives,” he said. “First responders face danger most days, and their goal is always to protect the community. Are they brave? Of course, they’re brave, but it’s not something they think about very often.”
Vargo retired on June 30th as the director of Ohio County’s EMA after decades as a first responder, and Marshall County’s Tom Hart is one of many of his colleagues who expressed their appreciation for his dedication to the residents living throughout the tri-state area.
“Lou set the standard for all of us as far as what he’s accomplished on every level of emergency response,” said Hart, the long-time EMA director in Marshall County. “During his career, 911 centers were created, and they’ve evolved quite a bit, and the creation of Homeland Security has been a lot to handle following 9/11. He not only did what he had to do for the residents of Ohio County, but he also worked with all of us in the state.
“Radio systems, equipment … there’s been so much that’s changed over the years, but Lou worked with everyone so when there was an emergency to respond to, we were all on the same page,” he explained. “What he did last summer after the tragic flooding in Valley Grove and Triadelphia was incredible. He’ll definitely be missed by the people in Ohio County, but also by all of us with (EMA) agencies throughout this valley.”
Answering Calls for Help
Firefighters and EMTs with the Wheeling Fire Department responded to more than 8,200 emergency calls for service in 2025, a 6 percent increase form 2024 and the second busiest year in the department’s history.
The statistics released by the City of Wheeling reveal 5,445 of those calls involved reasons connected to medical/EMS/rescue services, and 1,117 were classified as “service calls”. There were 90 calls for fires, 10 calls for severe weather, and 166 calls for “Hazardous Conditions”, and Vargo responded to a large portion of the reports.
“I think every time a first responder goes out on a (fire) truck or an ambulance, it is about their bravery because they never know what they will encounter from one call to the next, but it’s also about wanting to help their neighbors,” he explained. “A lot of times, our first responders are called to a home because someone is short of breath, but other times they might see a horrific accident that no one wants to see and handle as a first responder.
“Every day is different, and I guarantee you, no one is thinking about being brave. They just do their job because they’re on a mission to help people, whether it’s an EMS or police call,” he said. “Take what happened last week in Parkersburg with the warehouse fire. No one wants to deal with something that big, but firefighters from all around the state went there to help.”
Over the past 25 years, Vargo has managed responses to a number of natural disasters in Ohio County, two of which proved fatal and another that caused millions in damage primarily along Big Wheeling Creek in the city of Wheeling on September 17, 2004. That’s when 10 inches of rain fell in 10 hours over Wheeling, and the creek flooded the same day – and then the Ohio River covered Wheeling Island two days later.
In December 2017, 18-year-old Page Gellner, and her boyfriend, 23-year-old Michael Grow, perished in flash flooding along Brown’s Run, and last June, nine individuals perished
“As incident commanders like (Fire Chief) Jim Blazier or (Police Chief) Shawn Schwertfeger know, they can’t ask their men and women to do anything that you’re not willing to do yourself. That’s their experience, and that’s why they’re in charge and why we have captains and other positions like that,” Vargo explained. “Everyone is trained and trained again so they know the proper ways of doing what they have to do, and their superiors know what’s possible and what’s not.
“But, yes, you also know the danger comes with the job, because there are dangers to every call they take,” he said. “You have to be aware of it, too, and that’s why the training is so important.”
A Strange Silence
He admits it. It’s been quiet. Oddly so.
And yes, he misses the noise.
“But, as for my career, I’ve been very blessed,” Vargo said. “I started my career at an early age, and I’ve spent almost 50 years helping people as an anesthetist, developing a paramedics program, working with our local schools, and with the EMA and the 911 Center,” Vargo said. “And I’m still going to help with public safety whenever I’m asked.
“I’ll miss the conferences that I attended with the other EMA agencies from around the state because there’s a lot more than training that takes place during those days that we were all together,” he explained. “The collaboration is also very helpful because, during a lot of those conferences, there were things mentioned that weren’t meant for Ohio County, but I knew it could help here.”
Most of all, though, Vargo will miss working with the best of the best.
“Here in Ohio County? Without a doubt in my mind, we have one of the best teams in the state of West Virginia,” he insisted. “From fire to our EMTs and to our law enforcement agency, Wheeling and Ohio County are the best in the state. I’ll miss being a part of that very much.”
