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Highlands Today

Local Men Climbing Fire Ladder –Together

Longtime Associates State Fire Marshals Sauls And Ball Promoted

JASMINA MEYER/Highlands Today

From left: State Fire Marshal's Maj.Mark Sauls and Lt.Brandon Ball.

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By Joe  Seelig | Highlands Today

Published: June 29, 2008

AVON PARK — When Mark Sauls first met Brandon Ball, he was just a kid hanging around the Avon Park Firehouse.

"I worked with his dad and his grand-dad here," Sauls remembered.

Ironically, the Avon Park Firehouse is where both the state fire marshals got their career starts — sort of — even though they are separated in age by several years.

While Sauls started out in the Avon Park Fire Department in 1980, rising to the rank of driver and engineer, Ball said he knew at an early age he wanted to be a firefighter.

"You could say I got my start here," Ball said of his old hangout place at the firehouse. "That's when I met Mark, when I was about knee-high hanging around here. I knew at a very early age that I was going to be a firefighter. "

Both his dad, Alan Ball, and grand-dad, Charlie Howze, retired as assistant chiefs of the Avon Park Fire Department, and both were Sauls' bosses.

The long association of these two men continues well until today.

Both work at the same office — the Bureau of Fire and Arson Division of the State Fire Marshal's office — and Sauls is Ball's boss and has been for some time.

This year, they also were both promoted. On Jan. 14, Sauls, 47, now living in Tampa, became a major. His territory covers the three southern-most regions of Florida from the I-4 corridor, stretching from Tampa to Orlando, east to Daytona and south to Key West.

On July 1, Ball, who was promoted to a captain from lieutenant, will take the Tampa office under his wing. He also will be taking Sauls' old job.

"It's going to give me eight more counties and 10 additional employees," Ball said. "So ultimately, my responsibility will be for 12 counties."

Mark Sauls
When Sauls was working with the Avon Park Fire Department, the fire chief allowed him to go to the police academy.

While working part-time for Sheriff Joe Sheppard, he began to learn about fire investigation.

In 1987, he became a deputy in the road patrol. While at the sheriff's office, he was assigned to conduct all fire investigations that were deemed suspicious or resulted in serious injury or death.

In 1989, he joined the State Fire Marshal's Office as a law enforcement investigator. In 2000, he became a lieutenant in Polk County for the South Central Region, and a captain two years later.

"I really love both professions, law enforcement and fire services," he said. "After all this time I still love the job. It's the best of both worlds."

Sauls was born in Avon Park to Louise and Gene Sauls, "in the only hospital in Highlands County at that time, Walker Memorial," Sauls remembered.

His family lived in Sebring, and he graduated from Sebring High School in 1979.

Gene Sauls is a former mayor of Sebring and a former city councilman.

One of Sauls' sisters, Monica Sauls, is a Highlands County Sheriff's sergeant and brother Gino Sauls works for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) Another sister Terry Sauls works at the News Sun.

Mark Sauls and his wife, Patricia, have been married 10 years and have three children.

While the job has its rewards, he's seen a lot of terrible things as a part of it.

"Sometimes I don't want to remember," he said. "All the deaths we have each year –– many that could have been prevented with something as simple as a smoke detector."

Most memorable and rewarding was his part in a multi-jurisdictional church-fire investigation in Central Florida, when several churches were burned.

"We arrested a man from Tennessee," he said. "He would take a bus and get off at the bus station, and not far from the bus station, he'd find a church and set fire to it. Then his family would send him money and he'd get back on the bus."

Brandon Ball
Ball graduated from the fire academy at age 17.

"My father had to sign a liability waiver just to get me into the fire school," he remembered.

In December 1989, he was allowed to take the Florida State Certification exam, when he turned 18.

"I ultimately went over to Hardee County to work for Hardee Fire Rescue," he said.

He became certified as a paramedic in 1994.

"Some of my most valuable work experience happened between 1991 and 1998 when I worked for Hardee as a firefighter paramedic," Ball said. "I saw some of the best and the worst society had to offer. Public service as a whole exposes you to it."

In 1995 Ball achieved his law enforcement "minimum standards," completing a 644-hour course at Polk County Community College, in Winter Haven.

It was soon after he began working part-time for the Wauchula Police Department, while still working as a firefighter.

Ball is also an adjunct instructor at the Criminal Justice Academy at South Florida Community College.

He teaches a paramedic class and does some adjunct work as a general education teacher in the associate's in science degree program.

Ball said he enjoys managing people and likes to pass on his experiences to the next generation of fire investigators.

"I enjoy interacting with local firefighters and local law enforcement," he said. "I think my upbringing has kept me pretty well grounded and well focused and goal oriented."

Ball was born at Walker Memorial Hospital to Anita and Alan Ball, who still live in Avon Park. He has a younger brother Derek Ball, who lives in Texas.

He and his wife, Carla, have been married 14 years and have two children, ages 7 and 12.

Ball is certified as a bomb technician, which keeps him on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"I'm actually the only bomb technician in Polk, Hardee, Highlands and DeSoto," Ball said. "There are eight of us throughout the state."

He thoroughly enjoys what he does.

"My employment with the State Fire Marshal's Office is a natural progression of my public service career which started in the fire department," he said. "My most memorable experience is probably the most recent. I arrested a guy in Bartow (for arson). He was setting off fireworks in his apartment. He displaced about a dozen people.

"It's a real motivation for me to hold people accountable when those people put me, my fellow firefighters, or citizens at risk needlessly. My next most memorable case will be when I put the next arsonist in jail."

Joe Seelig can be reached at 386-5834 or at jseelig@highlandstoday.com

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