Penhold’s fire chief has been recognized for his 12 years of service.
Sean Pendergast was presented with the Alberta Emergency Services Medal for 12 years of service at a recent Penhold town council meeting.
“It’s incredible. For those 12 years, I’ve got to work in such a vibrant community in Penhold. It’s a huge honour,” he said, adding he plans to continue firefighting for a long time.
“I have no plans on stopping.”
Pendergast’s firefighting career began as a volunteer 12 years ago, he said.
“I stuck with it for a while. It kept getting more interesting as it went along – we started doing more medical calls and started to get deployed to other municipalities,” said Pendergast.
“I was in Nordegg to fight a forest fire there and more recently I went to the Chuckegg Creek fire in High Level. I’ve been in operations for 12 years and am slowly transitioning now through administration and management.”
The medal honours emergency services personnel who are involved in supporting emergency prevention, preparedness, and response in Alberta. The provincial government recognizes four milestones for eligible personnel: 12 years, 22 years, 32 years and 40 years.
Penhold Mayor Mike Yargeau was the one to give Pendergast the medal at the June 27 meeting.
“We are very fortunate that Chief Pendergast has served all 12 years in Penhold and appreciate the work he and his team do in playing such an integral part in helping to keep Penhold a safe and healthy community,” said Yargeau.
Firefighting is something of family tradition in the Pendergast family.
“My father was a firefighter for his entire life. His father was in the army, but at one point he was the fire chief of Springbrook when they had the army base there,” Pendergast said, adding it isn’t just his direct family with ties to firefighting.
“After I married my wife, I found out her great-great-grandfather was Horace Meeres – he was the first fire chief in Red Deer.”
Jim Pendergast, Sean’s father, started the Penhold Volunteer Fire Department in 2009 and overall had about 40 years of experience.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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