Vail Names 27-Year Veteran Ryan Ocepek Permanent Fire Chief

Aspen —The obvious assumption is that Ryan Ocepek’s appointment as Vail Fire Chief was a coronation of ambition. It wasn’t. To hear him tell it, the role found him because he was already there, and because leaving would have cost the department more than staying.

Ocepek has spent 27 years with Vail Fire & Emergency Services (VFES). He didn’t start as a career ladder climber; he started in 1999 as part of the Student Resident Firefighter Program, shadowing full-time firefighters. He moved from student to firefighter, to engineer, to C-shift lieutenant. He served as fire marshal and division chief from 2021 to 2024, then deputy fire chief until May of this year. When his mentor, Mark Novak, retired earlier this year, Ocepek stepped in as interim chief. Now, after a search that narrowed to three finalists, he is the permanent head of the department.

The Vail Daily reported that during his interview with Town Manager Russ Forrest, Ocepek was asked a tough question: What would he do if he didn’t get the job?

His answer was immediate. “I will do what I need to do because it’s not about me,” Ocepek told Forrest. “It’s about this community … and the fire department.”

That distinction matters. Vail is surrounded by public lands, which creates a complex operational landscape that requires close coordination with federal, state, and local agencies. Ocepek argues that an outsider would have faced a steep learning curve in mastering those partnerships.

“It’s the collaboration piece, the partnerships between all those (agencies),” Ocepek said. “It would have been hard for somebody … they would have gotten it, but it would have taken them a lot longer to figure this out.”

The math holds up. In a region where resources are shared across jurisdictional lines, the cost of a new chief spending two years learning who answers to whom is high. Ocepek has already spent decades navigating those lines.

But the decision wasn’t purely logistical. Ocepek admitted that as a young firefighter, he never imagined moving into administration. “If you would have asked me 10 years ago about being the fire chief … but, obviously, life changes,” he said. “You start to mature more, realize your body can’t keep doing something that’s designed for a 25-year-old, and then eventually try to figure out something different.”

He paused, then laughed. “This was a big one. But I had a good mentor, which was Mark Novak.”

Ocepek’s priorities are now explicit. He told the newspaper that he works for four groups, in a specific order: the community first, the fire department second, the town of Vail directors third, and his family last.

“That’s the biggest one out of all of them,” he said, referring to his family, acknowledging how motivations shift as life matures.

The environment Ocepek is stepping into is not the same one that existed a decade ago. The paper noted that he takes over during a record low snow year and an ongoing mega drought. These are not just weather patterns; they are operational threats that change the risk profile of every call.

Ocepek’s tenure will be defined by how well he can manage those risks while maintaining the collaborative framework that keeps Vail safe. He didn’t chase this job. He answered for it.

“I will do what I need to do because it’s not about me,” Ocepek said. “It’s about this community … and the fire department.”