Fire Hall No. 6

Mostly I write for business magazines, but every now and then I get a really unusual assignment. Last month it was a trip on the Rocky Mountaineer for a travel magazine and another was writing the bios and web copy for the Vancouver Fire Fighter’s Calendar. The travel job took me to Banff and a night in the fabulous Banff Springs Hotel, and I got to spend a day at Fire Hall No. 6 in the West End for the calendar.

I took some time to explore the 1907 heritage fire hall, thought to be the first one in North

America built specifically to house motorized equipment.

Other things I discovered:

• Firefighters don’t just fight fires. They free people caught in elevators, deliver babies, give first aid to people in medical distress; are trained to deal with hazardous materials, pull people from car wrecks, give CPR to dogs, cats and pet budgies—and I thought this was an urban myth—rescue cats from trees.

• Most have a lot of life experience before they join. I interviewed a plumber, a carpenter, a teacher, an aircraft mechanic and a paramedic.

• Spend an amazing amount of time volunteering at everything from the annual calendar to the Celebration of Light to raise money for a slew of children’s charities and God awful diseases.

• Can really cook. The day I was there it was a Thai noodle salad. Individual specialties range from hot Italian sausage penne to Spanakopita, spicy Hunan Chicken and lamb burgers with Orzo salad.  Oh, and they pay for their own food.

2012 is the 25^th anniversary for the Hall of Flame Calendar. This year there are fire fighters from Vancouver, North Vancouver District and White Rock. They all take a lot of ribbing for it, donate a bunch of time to do it, and more importantly, the calendar and all the events around it raises a ton of money for the Burn Fund.

You can pick up a calendar at London Drugs for $20. And, feel good about it–it’s for the kids….

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