PH25645 - Firemen Handle a Call a Week

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Community : Bradford West Gwillimbury
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Description : Firemen Handle A Call A Week
By John Slykhuis

The 23-man Bradford volunteer fire brigade handled 46 fire calls during 1976, Fire Chief Harold "Butch" Boyd reports.

That's almost one fire a week, and while most of those blazes were of the minor variety, they kept the men busy.

In addition to protecting Bradford and part of West Gwillimbury, the Bradford firemen also participate in one practice a week, every Monday evening.

The weekly drill includes fire extinguishing practice, movies, and lectures on new fire fighting techniques - all designed to keep the men abreast of the new technology.

The department is equipped with four trucks, a 1955 pumper truck, a 1969 pumper, a 1975 water truck, a 1969 rescue van, all crammed with the latest equipment including power packs, resuscitators, ladders and thousands of feet of hose.

Last year the men also acquired pager communicator units, eliminating the noisey fire alarm downtown and ensuring that every fireman gets the fire call.

Chief Boyd said that when someone detects a fire and calls the emergency number, 775-2121, a switchboard operator hooked into the pager system will immediately call the firemen.

According to Chief Boyd, one of the major causes of fired in Bradford is careless smoking and he urges families to "sit down and plan a route of escape when there is a fire."

He said not enough people plan for such an emergency, and therefore they needlessly endanger their lives.

He had a special message for Bradford residents who live in high rise apartment buildings.

If you detect fire, sound the alarm. If you are in your apartment and you hear the alarm, firs feel the hall door. If it is hot, don't open it.

If smoke begins to trickle under the door, stuff wet rags under it.

The chief said the most dangerous part of any fire is the smoke, which actually causes the majority of the fatalities.

In his 40-year career with the Bradford fire department, Harold Boyd has seen a lot of fired but he remember the February 1, 1959, blaze as the most severe.

"That was a rough one," the chief recalled. "It was so cold, we had to get buckets of hot water from housewives to thaw the equipment."

That fire destroyed the entire block of stores between Evans and Evans to the old Bank of Commerce building.

It took the men all afternoon and most of the night to extinguish it.

The Bradford fire department was well-equipped to handle that blaze, and now, 18 years later, Chief Boyd said, it is better equipped and trained than ever.

It's a comforting thought.

This article was found in the Bradford Womens Institute Scrapbooks.