Lacombe Fire Chief Tom Fisher has missed Christmases, birthdays, recitals and hockey games, all in the line of duty.
“I gave the community 20 years, and now it’s time to give the kids something,” Fisher said this week.
He’s hanging up his helmet, after nine years as chief, so he can spend more time with family and address his health issues.
Fisher had “no aspirations” to be a firefighter in 1989, when he was working at a local car dealer. But a Lacombe volunteer firefighter came into his work, asked him what his plans were that night, and told him to be at the fire hall at 7 p.m.
“I think realistically after that first night, I was hooked,” said Fisher, 43. “The camaraderie that goes with service, guys look out for each other. . . . It’s unbelievable what these people will do for each other.”
While it might be a feeling of obligation to community service that gets most people initially volunteering their spare time for physical labour and possible danger, it’s the esprit de corps that keeps them there, he said.
The Lacombe volunteer fire department might not see the same call volume as a fire department in a major city, but they still see 250 to 300 calls a year, Fisher said.
To that end, Fisher is credited by the Town of Lacombe with bumping up the membership of the department from 32 to 40. He also updated the department’s equipment, including tankers, a support trailer with a boat and quad, and infrared cameras.
“The fires are just as hot in Red Deer as they are in Lacombe,” he added.
mgauk@www.reddeeradvocate.com