Longest-serving firefighter would do it all over again

April 15, 2015 · 0 Comments

By Mark Pavilons
We owe a great deal to our forefathers and all those who’ve laid the foundations of our communities.
The local fire department has long been the very cornerstone of our towns and cities. The men and women who serve make up a veritable who’s who of our local history.
Schomberg’s Assistant District Fire Chief Bruce Graham is one such individual. But he won’t take any credit for it. Instead, he praises the leadership, dedication and training of local firefighters, who’ve created one of the best services in the province.
It’s been a few years in the making, though. Graham has marked 50 years of service, an almost unprecedented achievement in volunteer firefighting. He’s been retired for more than a year, but he still pitches in when needed.
The life-long Schomberg resident joined the force in 1965. He worked in his father’s garage across the street from the station, so it was a perfect fit. In those early years, they strictly handled fire calls.
“When we got a call, it was a serious fire,” he observed.
There were no pagers, just an alarm mounted on a poll in downtown Schomberg, similar to an air raid siren. When it rang, they dropped everything and off they went.
Graham has an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of the community’s history and its long-time families.
Being a mechanic, Graham spent many years working on the department’s trucks and equipment. He has a fondness for them and remembers each and every one of these beauties.
He grins when he speaks about the 1936 International with an open air cab, or the station’s first new truck in 1969, a Thibault Custom Ford Pumper.
In those early years, crews had to source water, since they didn’t have the benefit of tanker trucks. That made fighting fires challenging, especially when the buildings were fully engulfed when they arrived.
“It was tough back then,” he observed.
But things progressed and the fire department was always ahead of the curve, on the cutting edge of training and knowledge. One of the members, the late Bruce Jessop, even created his own spreading tool, similar to the jaws of life. He made one out of a 5-ton car jack and it saw service with another department up north. It remains in King as part of its historic pieces.
Neighbours all lent a hand in an emergency and pitched in to help. That’s what neighbours did.
Graham recalls a natural gas explosion on Main Street in Schomberg in 1989 that levelled a house and threw its female occupant clear. Burning cinders travelled for blocks and firefighters and residents worked day and night to save nearby properties.
“That was a big save,” Graham said. “We put a lot of hours in that one.”
With the arrival of new equipment and increasing demands of the crews, their roles expanded. They began responding to a multitude of automobile collisions along the major routes of Highway 27 and Highway 9. They also evolved and provided medical assistance, which remains to this day as their largest volume of calls.
Fire Chief Jim Wall noted firefighters like Graham may have been “old school” but they were very progressive and even advanced.
With every new task or responsibility they took on, training followed suit. Both Wall and Graham recall many hours spent on hazardous material training. You may never need it, but the firefighters are all well versed in the procedures.
The volunteers worked closely together; the department hired the best and they always asked for the best equipment. Even in its infancy, King Fire had the edge and the respect of others, a reputation that spread for miles and miles.
Graham said they were all ecstatic when new equipment arrived and they used it successfully to extricate a driver, or douse a house fire.
Graham, and those who served alongside him, saved a great many souls.
“It took a great crew to stick with us,” Graham said. “It took a lot of dedication.”
In rural areas, farm and barn fires are common. Graham noted some silo fires lasted for days. He was also at a house fire where the smoke was so thick he could not see more than an inch from his face. Dropping his hose to try to rescue a house cat, he lost his bearings and had to feel his way out of the building.
Crews were also busy during the Barrie tornado of May 1985 that killed eight people, injured another 155 and destroyed 300 homes, causing an estimated $100 million in damage.
Graham remembers stopping to help a truck driver stopped by downed hydro wires. Fortunately they were not live. To this day, he remembers the sky being a strange shade of green and it was eerily still. He looked around and noticed barns and structures had been destroyed.
There were a lot of memorable extrications along the way, and in two notable incidents, people trapped in their cars walked away without as much as a scratch.
Alas, not all the incidents were success stories, Graham admitted. There have been tough fatal accidents and one in particular saw several firefighters pack it in.
Graham said he’s very proud that he managed to stick around the Schomberg fire hall for his career, through thick and thin. The friendship in the fire halls is unparalleled.
“It was challenging and very rewarding,” he said. “We had a lot of good times. I’d do it all over again.”
Despite his departure, Graham said “King is in good hands.
“Jim (Wall) runs a good show.”
It takes a sense of pride to “build a great product,” the fire chief observed. Wall also pays tribute to all those who paved the way for the modern fire department – the likes of Lorne Burbidge, Barrie Moir, Bruce Rumble, Ross Kennedy, Terry Phillipps, Norm Weir, George Crane, Ken Rice, and Bruce Jessop.
From the grass roots to the pinacle of performance, King Fire and Emergency Services is built on guts, not glory, on selfless service, not praise.
The roster of dedicated individuals, past and present, make it one of the best.