Volunteer departments mourn loss of firefighter killed in the line of duty
Volunteer fire departments across Alberta — and the country — share in the pain of Tuesday’s line-of-duty death of Alberta firefighter James Hargrave.
Redwood Meadows Emergency Services fire Chief Rob Evans spoke of unbreakable bonds among the men and women who volunteer their time protecting and serving their communities.
“You don’t need to know these guys who are injured or killed in the line of duty,” he said.
“You know that any time when the pager goes off that it could have been you — it really hits home.”
Hargrave, a member of the Walsh fire department in Cypress County, in southeastern Alberta, died Tuesday evening when the water tender he was driving collided with a pickup truck near the town of Leader in southwestern Saskatchewan.
He was part of a team of Alberta and Saskatchewan fire crews battling wildfires fuelled by strong winds that swept across the southern parts of the provinces on Tuesday.
A GoFundMe campaign launched by a family friend has raised nearly $30,000 in less than 24 hours for his wife and young family.
Volunteer firefighters train to the same standards as their fulltime counterparts in larger cities, and carry the same burdens and responsibilities.
“We put thousands and thousands of hours of training in, just like a career firefighter does, to keep our skills up,” Evans said.
“And we’re doing that on top of our paid jobs, on top of running our kids to soccer and hockey.”
According to the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association, 80 per cent of firefighters in the province are volunteers.
There are about 450 volunteer fire departments in Alberta, representing nearly 97 per cent of all fire halls in the province.
Many career firefighters employed by large municipal departments also serve as volunteers in their own communities, Evans said.
“It’s the dedication — many small-town Canada fire departments are made up of families,” Evans said.
“That’s when the firefighting family really comes out — when something tragic like this happens, we’re there for everybody.”