Dustin Michael Named Head of EMS/Fire Brigade
Posted on Monday, June 15th, 2026
New Leader in Emergency Services: Dustin Michael has been promoted
to EMS Manager, the top post in the EMS/Fire Brigade operated by
Mercy Health Love County Hospital.
For many in Love County, Dustin Michael is the face of firefighting. For 32 years, he has volunteered with the Marietta Volunteer Fire Department, including a long tenure as chief.
His service expanded in 2008 when WinStar Casino began building hotels and contracted with Love County EMS to add fire and rescue capabilities to the county‑owned ambulance service. Michael transitioned to a professional role at that time, continuing the work he describes simply as “helping the community” — a commitment he has lived around the clock.
In December 2025, that long record of service culminated in his appointment as the head of Love County EMS/Fire Brigade. Formally titled EMS Manager, he was named to the post by Mercy Health Love County Hospital, which manages the unified ambulance and fire operation.
Love County’s model is believed to be the only hospital‑based EMS in the United States that maintains a Fire Brigade — a term used when a fire department functions as a subset of a company or organization.
Station 2 of Love County EMS/Fire Brigade is located on casino grounds at Exit 1-Interstate 35. Under its roof are a platform truck, an engine truck, a brush truck, and several ambulances. There, paid firefighters — all cross‑trained as Paramedics or EMTs — work 48‑hour shifts providing emergency medical response, fire prevention, fire suppression, and search and rescue across the numerous casino facilities. Their specialized skills include elevator and escalator rescue.
As many as 50,000 people may be on the grounds during the busiest events at WinStar. The property includes four hotel towers with 1,399 rooms, a 6,500‑seat global events center, a golf complex, swimming pools, an RV park, a spa, employee apartments, more than 20 restaurants, and 400,000 square feet of gaming floor. It is recognized as the largest casino in the United States.
Ambulances roll from Station 2 to the casino, often summoned by first‑aid attendants inside the facility — themselves employees of Love County EMS/Fire Brigade.
Meanwhile, in Marietta, Paramedics and EMTs operate Station 1 on hospital grounds. From there, ambulances respond 24 hours a day to 911 calls for emergency medical care anywhere in the county. Air ambulances are summoned as needed. Between calls, the Paramedics also assist the Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners in the emergency room.
The two stations answer about 3,000 ambulance calls a year, with the larger share originating from WinStar Casino. Patient transfers increased over the past two years, after a powerful tornado damaged the hospital and temporarily ended inpatient care. Most transfers go to receiving hospitals along the Oklahoma City–to–Dallas corridor.
Michael is only the second person to lead the combined EMS/Fire Brigade. He succeeds Tad Hall, PA‑C, who retired last fall after 43 years of service to the hospital. Hall became EMS Manager in 1994 when Love County EMS came under hospital management, and he continued in that role as the Chickasaw Nation contracted with the hospital for ambulance and first aid services in 2003 and fire services in 2008 at the ever-expanding casino.
The “basic” ambulance service was brought up to “advanced life support” level and the entire EMS/Fire Brigade structure was built during Hall’s distinguished career. He also served as head of the hospital’s Emergency Room, where he had been treating patients as a physician assistant since 1982.
Michael’s own path into firefighting began with an invitation. A 1990 graduate of Marietta High School, he recalls, “A friend invited me on a grass fire emergency to consider becoming a volunteer firefighter. After helping that day, I decided, ‘I can do this and I can get better at it.’”
He completed OSU Fire Service Training in 1995 and later joined the OSU program as an adjunct instructor. When the new Fire Brigade began offering full‑time positions in 2008, Michael jumped at the chance to enter professional firefighting while continuing to volunteer with the Marietta Fire Department.
Until his recent promotion to EMS Manager, Michael was the Fire Brigade’s Training Officer, responsible for teaching and refreshing Brigade members in firefighting and emergency driving, pump operations, hose advancement, structure fires, extrication, rescue, and high‑rise operations.
Uniquely, the Fire Brigade extended its training to all of Love County. “We put on evening training sessions once a month and invite all the other fire departments in the county,” he said.
Natasha West, EMS Training Coordinator, recently taught an eight-week First Responder class, with several volunteer departments sending students. First Responders arrive at an accident or illness scene first to give first aid. They assess a patient’s condition and report it to ambulance medics en route.
Michael is especially skilled in vehicle extrication. “I like the problem‑solving of extrications, because every wreck crushes metal differently. We must get the trapped person out alive the quickest way possible. It’s very satisfying to do that and ‘defeat’ the wreck.”
Michael’s approach to management is teamwork. “We are making decisions together,” he says of the 65 employees.
They voted to change their uniform color to dark blue and to update shoulder patches with a combined fire/medical illustration. The new logo also appears on ambulances and fire trucks.
At Station 1, medics moved in 2026 into spacious new quarters in the former Growers Market Building on Legacy Park Lane, after their former station was destroyed by the 2024 tornado. Two new ambulances are on order to replace older vehicles from the fleet of eight.
The combined department is a premier place to work and, as the only paid department in the area, attracts experienced firefighter applicants from numerous volunteer departments in Oklahoma.
Trenton Mitchell, from Lexington, was hired to replace Michael as Training Officer. Mitchell is also an OSU Fire Service Training adjunct instructor. In June he helped teach a Fire Fighter I class of 15 students – all of them newcomers to volunteer fire departments in Love County. The class took place at Station 2.
All of the volunteer departments and the Fire Brigade comprise The Fire Department of Love County, providing mutual aid and training together.
Michael is pursuing grants to purchase new ambulances, radios, and power cots for loading patients into ambulances. The department has welcomed a new medical director, Dr. Yanet Camarena, a physician in the hospital clinic.
After witnessing hundreds of critical events through years in the field, Michael, age 55, is teaching the staff to “prepare for the worst.” “Emergency planning,” he said, “is anticipating the worst that can happen in fire or medical response and preparing for it. We are going to take care of our crews so they can take care of patients.”
Michael is one of three children of Jan and the late Dick Michael of Marietta. He and his wife, Jodi, continue to make their home here.
Retirement, Replacement: Dustin Michael (r) is seen in 2009 at
Station 2 with Tad Hall, PA-C, who was the first EMS Manager and oversaw the
start-up of the Fire Brigade until his retirement in 2025. Hall's remarkable
career as a physician assistant in the Emergency Room, which he also managed,
began in 1982.
Michael with Station 1 Crew June 1 2026: Dustin Michael l) poses in new
ambulance quarters on hospital grounds with (backrow) Lt. Ben Grace,
Parmamedic, Darryl Wood, Paramedic (middle) EMS Training Coordinator
Natash West (front) Keiri Craig, Paramedic, and Lance Mathews, EMT.
New Shoulder Patch: DFire and Medical Logos are shown on
shoulder patches adopted in 2026 by the personnel of Love County
EMS/Fire Brigade.