A longtime firefighter in Mississauga has been named the city’s new fire chief.
The City of Mississauga said on Wednesday that Stephane Malo, a former deputy chief with Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services who’s served as interim chief since earlier this year, has been named to the position permanently.
Malo has served within Mississauga’s fire ranks since 1996 and spent five years in the role of deputy chief. He took the reins as interim city fire chief back in April after the sudden departure of former chief Deryn Rizzi, who had occupied the position since 2018.
In naming Malo interim chief earlier this year, the city said at the time that “he is ready to step into this important role.”
City officials have provided no specific reason for Rizzi’s departure, which was effective as of March 31.
In announcing Malo’s promotion on Wednesday, the city said its new fire chief “brings nearly 30 years of progressive experience in fire and emergency services.”
Since starting out as a Mississauga firefighter in the mid-1990s, Malo has held several leadership positions including those of training officer, captain, platoon chief, deputy chief of operations and interim fire chief.
“Throughout his career, he has led strategic improvements in efficiency, safety and community engagement, and guided (the fire service) through critical challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic,” the city said, adding the new head firefighter has also built strong relationships with staff, union leaders and community stakeholders over the years.
Malo said he’s honoured to have been selected Mississauga’s new fire chief.
“With a strategic vision, operational excellence and a steadfast commitment to public safety and community engagement, I look forward to continuing to ensure Mississauga remains a leader in emergency response and community safety,” he said in a news release on Wednesday.
Malo comes into the new role at a time when a number of new fire stations are being built across Mississauga — and some older ones renovated — in order to keep up with population growth and ensure the latest in equipment and technology is being used.
A revamped and modernized Fire Station 102, located on Third Street in the Cawthra Road/Lakeshore Road East area of southeast Mississauga, officially reopened in early May. It’s needed in order to meet the demands of a growing population in that part of the city, the ward councillor said.
Ward 1 Coun. Stephen Dasko said in an earlier online project update the fire station, which was built in 1979, needed upgrades in response to both population growth since that time and anticipated population growth that’s coming thanks to two massive new waterfront developments — Lakeview Village and Brightwater.
Elsewhere across the city as of earlier this year, 17 of Mississauga’s 22 fire stations now operating were being renovated or had recently been renovated. Of those, 13 of the stations are more than 30 years old and the fixes are needed to address health and safety, staffing composition and accessibility.
Also, several new fire stations are slated to open in the coming years. The new fire stations include:
- Fire Station 123 — The Collegeway and Winston Churchill Boulevard in west Erin Mills (opening 2026)
- Fire Station 124 — Cawthra Road just south of Dundas Street East (opening 2026)
- Fire Station 126 — Mavis Road and Dundas Street West
- Fire Station 127 (Lorne Park community)
- Fire Station 128 (north Lakeview community)
Fire Station 125, in the Tenth Line/Aquitaine Avenue area of west Meadowvale in northwest Mississauga, opened late last year. It was the 22nd fire station to open in the city and Mississauga’s first net-zero energy station.
That means it “combines energy efficiency and renewable energy generation to consume only as much energy as can be produced onsite through renewable sources over a year,” city officials said in an earlier online description of the new facility.