City’s new fire chief comes from family of firefighters
David Cunliffe says he always wanted to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather
When he was a boy, David Cunliffe pretended to be a firefighter.
He knew how to do it. He’d seen his grandfather in action. When the tones would go off at the fire hall on John Street, Platoon Chief Jack Cunliffe would slide down the pole and off he’d go, to the utter amazement of his adoring grandson.
David had the gear. He cherished the real fire helmet his grandpa gave him, with “DC David” written across the front.
And he had the blood. David’s greatgrandfather, Herbert, was also a Hamilton firefighter. He joined the department in 1911 and retired in 1943.
And so it is that the boy’s “lifelong dream” was fulfilled last week when he was chosen as this city’s new fire chief.
“I’m so fortunate and happy,” Cunliffe says, clearly appreciating all the family history that has led to this moment. “This has been highly emotional. There is lots of pride and excitement.”
Cunliffe joined Hamilton’s fire department in 2005, has been deputy chief since 2007 and has twice served as acting chief. He is succeeding Rob Simonds, who left the department in
January to take an administrative job in Nova Scotia.
“I grew up listening to the fire stories around the kitchen table,” says Cunliffe, a Hamilton native who attended Westmount High School followed by Southmount for Grade 13. He went to Mohawk College for a three-year business degree.
Herbert Cunliffe was the first Hamilton firefighter to teach first aid. Though there are photos of Herbert and baby David together, the new chief says he does not remember his great-grandfather.
However he vividly remembers his grandfather Jack, who joined the department in 1929 and retired in 1967.
“His badge sits on my desk,” he says.
This latest generation of firefighting Cunliffes started as a volunteer in Haldimand in 1993, the year after his grandfather died.
Cunliffe’s father had also wanted to be a firefighter, but Jack talked him out of it, insisting his son be the first in the family to go to university. He wanted him to get a job that paid better than firefighting.
“My dad went to the University of Toronto and became a professional engineer,” says Cunliffe, 55.
But his dad would take him and his brother, Mike, to fire scenes to watch their grandfather Jack work.
Mike is a veteran Hamilton police officer. And Cunliffe’s daughter and her husband are Hamilton police officers as well.
Cunliffe notes the parallels between himself and the city’s new police chief, Eric Girt, also a Hamilton native who was a long-time deputy here before being promoted.
“Chief Cunliffe is very strategic, smart and he is keen to be a great leader,” says Jo-Anne Priel, the city’s general manager of community and emergency services. “He is a solid, solid person. A solid family man.”
The search for the new chief was open to internal and external candidates, says Priel, but hiring from within means “stability” during the transition.
“He can hit the ground running. There’s no gap,” says Henry Watson, president of the Hamilton Professional Firefighters Association Local 288.
“I think the choice was a good one. We have a good working relationship with Dave.”
As an extraordinary number of veteran firefighters prepare for retirement, Cunliffe and Watson agree the department needs to focus on recruitment and training.
There are 534 professional firefighters in Hamilton and another 270 volunteer firefighters. In the past 10 years, 50 per cent of the front-line fire suppression staff have retired. By 2020 another 100 or more senior firefighters will reach the end of their careers.
Cunliffe’s promotion is effective immediately, but a formal ceremony to install him in the top firefighting job will take place in September.
Susan Clairmont’s commentary appears regularly in The Spectator. sclairmont@thespec.com 905-526-3539 | @susanclairmont