This is why firefighters deserve our praise

To the Editor:



I would like to publicly thank the members of the Kentville Volunteer Fire Department for their outstanding commitment to our community. Many residents in our area would have no way of knowing what this commitment involves and I’m hoping this letter will shed some light on exactly what being a volunteer firefighter means.

It means regular weekly training sessions, with specialized training and upgrading over whole weekends at a time; sometimes sitting on boards and committees, and other times raising funds from the community. It means leaving loved ones during planned family events, or friends at social gatherings. It means leaving unfinished dinners to turn cold on the dining room table, or a warm bed on a cold winter night. It means leaving their employment, often with lost pay for the hours missed. In short, it means stopping whatever they’re doing when the pager sounds so they can respond to the call.

“Why would anyone do this?� you might ask. Many of us have no convincing answer. But for our firefighters, it’s all about people: helping those whose homes, personal possessions and sometimes loved ones are being threatened by fire; being at the scene of a car crash to rescue the victims from their vehicles and to comfort them until the paramedics arrive; it’s sometimes even about directing traffic to ensure that motorists pass by a scene safely, without having to witness the grisly realities of a disaster.

It’s about pubic safety and health at the site of a chemical leak or hazardous spill and it’s also about these professionals who train and work side-by-side, and about the bonds that develop when their own lives depend upon the knowledge and actions of their crew members.

Our Kentville firefighters, like their peers in other communities, have earned and deserve our gratitude and respect. They’re generally a humble group, asking for no payment and little recognition for their toil. Consequently, their sacrifices often go unknown. In spite of this, every now and then, tragedies claim the media headlines and they become the “heroes of the day.�

This was the case recently during the unfortunate fires at the Tempest Restaurant in Wolfville, and again at the Keddy Farm in Grafton. Our Kentville crews, along with others throughout the area, battled those two blazes well into the night. Exhausted after long hours manning the hose or beating down the fire, they either went home to their beds or on to their place of employment to begin a new day.

The men and women who make up our local fire department, along with other emergency service workers, are the guardians of our safety and personal property. They’re there in the quiet hours of the night and in the midst of the routine activities of their daily lives, listening for the pager’s call and ready to respond when it does so we don’t have to face disaster alone.



Mayor David L. Corkum

Town of Kentville