First Responder Memorials

On August 25th of this year, the federal government of Canada had declared that the second Sunday of September will now be designated as Firefighters’ National Memorial Day. Yesterday in our local service area, we in Emergency Medical Services were invited by our volunteer fire department to participate in their memorial program. It was a sombering experience to witness some of the veteran firefighters, one of which will have 50 years of service next year, share their stories over the past years.

As the day was declared in August, a few quotes from high ranking officials put the reasoning for this day into perspective.

“Firefighters put their safety on the line to Canadians. Firefighters’ National Memorial Day will allow us to commemorate those who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and with the new grant program created in our last budget, we will demonstrate our support for their loved ones on a national scale.” Honorable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

“In honor of Canada’s fallen firefighters and on behalf of their families, we are truly grateful for the proclamation to name the second Sunday of every September, the date of our annual ceremony, as Firefighters’ National Memorial Day. We sincerely appreciate the efforts of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Minister Ralph Goodale who have demonstrated our government’s appreciation of the sacrifice and commitment of firefighters in this country, and what they do for their local communities.” Captain Robert Kirkpatrick, president of the Canadian Fallen Firefighters’ Foundation

According to news releases from all over the country, over 1,300 firefighters have died in the line of duty since 1848. That statistic alone is just from Canadian soil.

We need to understand, while not taking away from this day to remember fallen firefighters, that all first responder groups have lost amazing people in the line of duty. In 1998 the last Sunday of every September has been designated as Police and Peace Officer National Memorial day. According to my knowledge and brief research, Emergency Medical Services has yet to achieve a designated memorial day.

We also need to remember that over the years, many first responders have committed suicide due to post traumatic stress disorder. Since August of 2014, the Tema Conter Memorial Trust Foundation has been keeping a tally of just this. 161 first responders have taken their own lives since this time, and 2017 hasn’t shown any signs that the yearly average will decrease.

But back to the realization that line of duty deaths are a major concern, and that although most organizations have a strict safety training policy, there are just some situations that cannot be prevented. A good portion of our safety involves the public itself. There are many programs across the country that are aiming to put public awareness available to all Canadians.

Some fairly easy, and well described tips can be found all over television, the internet, and most social media outlets. If people would just pay attention to these advertisements, and follow the basic guidelines, it would greatly reduce the number of line of duty deaths that plague our services every year.

Although some of these images are directed at police on the side of the road, in our province, it now pertains to all Emergency Services including tow trucks. Its amazing at what people will do in an emergency zone, and how it puts our lives at risk daily. Not following these laws are one of the major reasons we lose people across our country who are just trying to do their jobs. But its not always traffic accidents or people who are pulled over for driving infractions. I just found out from one of our firefighters yesterday, that while they were out fighting a grass fire, the smoke was blowing across the road reducing visibility to near zero, and that people weren’t slowing down. I just want to point out that emergency vehicles may be hiding in the smoke and can’t be moved every time the smoke shifts, so if you decide that you want to keep doing highway speed, imagine there is a firetruck in the smoke, and your body going from 100 km/hr to 0 km/hr in less than a split second. If people just realized, from physics back in their school days, every action has an equal and opposite reaction (it may not be your reaction, but it could be ours, and sometimes that reaction is death).

Please keep us in mind every time you are on the road, and remember that just like you, we want to go home every day to see our families as well. Let us all try to prevent this: