Civic duty a calling for former fire chief
Even as a young man, Louis Day was drawn to firefighting. Decades before he served as Edmonton’s fire chief, a teenage Day would hang around Firehall No. 5 at 111th Avenue and 101st Street, running errands for the firefighters, just to be part of it, said his son, Wayne Day.
“It just went on from there. It was just always his life,” he said.
Day died in an Edmonton hospital on March 28. He was 91.
Day was born in Edmonton in 1920, and save for two years as a firefighter with the Canadian Navy in Prince Rupert, B.C., lived in the city his whole life. Peggy Miller Day, his wife of 30 years, said he had a keen interest in Edmonton’s history, having witnessed the city’s transformation over his lifetime. When Day was a teenager, for instance, he used to tether his horse in empty lots around his parents’ home at 114th Avenue and 91st Street.
In 1942, Day joined the Edmonton fire department. As a front-line firefighter, Day and his crew battled a blaze that devastated the Northern Hardware Building downtown in 1949. At the time, it was the city’s most costly fire, causing $2 million damage. It was finally put out after 36 hours, and while the men were lauded for their efforts, the department was criticized for being inefficient.
Day rose through the ranks to become chief in 1972, a position he held until his retirement in 1984.
As chief, Day did everything he could to ensure firefighters had the most advanced training and best equipment available, said retired Edmonton fire marshal Robert Kostash. Day entered firefighting not for its excitement, but because it was a crucial public service, Kostash said.
“He felt it’s a job that needs to be done,” Kostash said. “And whoever goes into it, must become as efficient as possible, to keep property loss and life loss to an absolute minimum.”
Cec Purves, an alderman and later mayor during Day’s run as chief, said Day fought hard for his department, which tended to bring the two men into disagreement during budget time. “He never held back,” Purves said. “He told us exactly what he thought, and that’s what I liked about him. I had a lot of respect for him.”
Day was chief in 1976, when Edmonton’s fire department recorded its last deaths in action. Murray Clark and Ralph Hopp were killed after they were caught in a flashover, a sudden explosive eruption during a fire at a downtown nightclub. Day and his first wife, Ada Day, who died in 1980, delivered the news to the men’s families. The experience stayed with him, said Miller Day, whom he married in 1982. “It was a very difficult task,” she said.
Miller Day, a longtime CJCA broadcaster who penned the Edmonton Eskimos fight song, joined the city’s public relations team in the early 1980s, later landing in the fire department. She met Day while working on fire safety education for students in Grades 1 to 5.
“He considered that a very important part of fire prevention and fire safety,” Miller Day said. “Children playing with matches or lighters were the cause of many residential fires, and he felt that children needed to realize these sort of things were not the best things to be playing with.”
Kostash said that while other chiefs focused on fighting fires, Day’s goal was to stop them from ever starting. But he also helped establish standards to minimize their destruction. He helped develop the Alberta provincial building code and the first provincial fire code, working closely with retired provincial fire commissioner Bill Mackay. Before the code, every town and city had their own set of local bylaws.
“He was well thought of among all the chiefs in the province. They looked to him as one of their leaders,” Mackay said.
Day’s service to the fire community was recognized with the Order of Canada in 1982. Ten years ago, he received the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal, and this year, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Award.
Besides his son, Wayne, Day is survived by another son, Michael Day, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.