Good Place For It

When I was on the board of the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation I was involved in organizing the annual memorial ceremony, which was held on Parliament Hill in Ottawa at the time. I think this happened at the second ceremony, but it might have been the third.

First I have to set this up. The purpose of the ceremony is to honour and remember Canada's firefighters who have died in the line of duty. The Foundation subsidizes family members of firefighters who have died the year before so that they can come to the ceremony. Fire helmets play a role in this.

There is an altar on which there is a helmet placed for each of the firefighters who have died the year before. During the ceremony each family is given a medallion with the name of the firefighter engraved on it and they are presented with a fire helmet.

To do that there is a helmet party. The helmet party consists of firefighters most of whom the families have chosen to present them with the medallion and helmet. These firefighters march in carrying the helmets and place them on the altar and later take them and present them to the families.

One such firefighter who was retired for some years came to Ottawa from Nova Scotia specially to be in the helmet party. I had been introduced to him the day before during the ceremony rehearsal. He was very proud to be there.

On the morning of the ceremony I arrived early, around 6 a.m. for the preparation for the ceremony, which is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. There is quite a lot to do to get ready. Five hours seems like a lot of time but on the day of the ceremony that time really goes fast.

At around 10 a.m. with most of the preparation well underway, I was up on the top steps in front of the Peace Tower with the ceremony stage manager and the two bell ringers waiting for the parade to start. The parade consisted of firefighters in uniform, the bands involved, the honour guards and the helmet party. In order for the ceremony to start at 11 a.m. the parade had to start twenty minutes to half an hour before that, depending on how many firefighters had arrived for it.

I saw an Ottawa Fire Services pumper driving west on Wellington street and I pointed it out to the guys. "Look, Ottawa has sent a crew to participate." Just as it passed the eternal flame its siren went off along with its air horns. Right then the stage manager got a call and answered it with his digital radio.

Our friend in the helmet party from Nova Scotia had just had a heart attack. The other firefighters in the parade immediately went to work with their paramedic skills and the pumper arrived within less than thirty seconds with its defibrillator equipment. An ambulance arrived soon after and took him to the hospital. One of the nurses on duty there was a firefighter's wife. She told me later he got very well looked after and revived very quickly from his ordeal. He was however, very disappointed that he didn't participate in the ceremony.