Jacques Denault (1947-1998): An eminent fire chief for Sherbrooke from 1985 to 1998
In 2008-2009, the City of Sherbrooke built Fire Station No. 7 on the site of the municipal garage of the former City of Rock Forest. It is situated on Bourque Boulevard, in order to answer calls from the Borough of Rock Forest— Saint-élie—deauville. This Fire Station was built in order to replace the one in the Deauville City Hall building, which had been in use since 1983. Sherbrooke City Council named the Fire Station in 2008 after one of its most eminent Fire Chiefs. It became operational in 2009. Most ironically, the garage and the Fire Station were completely destroyed by a fire on December 23, 2013. A Fire Station was temporally set up in a warehouse belonging to the Raymond Bilodeau Inc. Company on Bourque Boulevard, until a new Fire Station was built in 2015-2016, at a cost of $2,6 million.
Jacques Denault was born in Sherbrooke, March 11, 1947. He was the son of Edwidge Fortin ( 1909-1977) and of Arthur Denault (1906-1968), day labourer and later, policeman. The couple had been married in 1927 in Bishopton. In 1967, Jacques became a City of Sherbrooke firefighter. In 1968, he married Carol Parsons, the daughter of Frances Mclean and of Maurice Parsons, a Sherbrooke insurance broker. They had one son, Gary. Jacques Denault was promoted Lieutenant in 1974 and then, in 1979, Chief Instructor for the training of officers and firefighters. In 1983, he completed a course in fire prevention technologies at the CEGEP de Sherbrooke and in 1985, at the CEGEP du Vieux-montréal he obtained a certificate in firefighting services management. Following these upgrading courses, he became Fire Chief of the Sherbrooke Fire Department. The Department also served the municipalities of Ascot, Fleurimont, Rock Forest and Saint-élied’orford. He held this function until his death in 1998. In 1989, he had earned a diploma in business administration from the École des hautes études commerciales de Montréal and in 1996, followed the Debriefing post-traumatic intensive course at the University of Maryland. From 1992 to 1998, he was also the Coordinator for emergency measures for the City of Sherbrooke. Further, he was the assistant director of Community protection services – Fire protection from 1996-1997, and in 1994, the person in charge of File 911, the emergency numbers file.
Jacques Denault was interested in training for firefighters from early on, so that he constantly took such training and later on offered the training in different ways. So from 1978 to 1984 he was a part-time trainer for the Fire Protection Department. He took part in developing different training programs both in Sherbrooke and elsewhere in the Province. He gave talks and lectures at more than a hundred seminars and congresses all over Canada. He had an interest both for management of fire protection services as well as for emergency services in general. He thus saw to the revision of policy and procedures of the Sherbrooke Fire Protection Department, including human resources management, improving the quality of professional tasks, the sale of professional services to other municipalities, hospitals and companies, the restructuring of the
Department concerning manpower rationalization and relocation of the fire stations. He was also a consultant/resource person for a large number of municipalities on matters including the choice of candidates for management positions, for planning the content of promotion exams, the analysis of how municipal services had intervened in cases of civil lawsuits, the preparation and establishment of emergency services and the drawing-up of requirements for quotations in the procurement of equipment. Elsewhere, he was an adviser to the Québec Government for the publication in 1989 of Les municipalités et les extincteurs automatiques à eau : un pas vers l’avenir. He took part in writing a book published in 1996 by the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, Emergency Operating Guidelines. He was also the author of Répartiteur d’urgence – Incendie published in 1997. Lastly, he took part with the Sherbrooke Regional Social Services Agency in the elaboration of the provincial protocol for first responders to an emergency.
Jacques Denault also played a part with an impressive number of associations: International Society of Fire Service Instructors (1983-1998), Association des techniciens en prévention incendie (1985-1998), Association des pompiers instructeurs du Québec (1989-1998), National Fire Protection Association (1989-1998), Quebec representative and First vice-president of the Canadian Fire Chiefs Association (1992-1998), Canadian division director of the International Fire Chiefs Association (1994-1998), sector director of the Association des chefs de service
d’incendie du Québec (1996-1998) et and president of the Canadian Fire Chiefs Association (1998).
In conclusion, according to his successor, Fire Chief Michel Richer, Jacques Denault’s involvement and leadership in the field of fire protection at all levels, from municipal, provincial to international, made it possible for the Sherbrooke Fire Department to be known as avant-garde in the field of fire prevention and firefighting.