Volunteer Firefighters in Reader's Digest

Turns out one of those stories is online after all.

“Firefighting gets in your blood,” says 37-year-old Lantz deputy chief Tim MacNeil, who has been with the department since age 19. He works two day jobs, including one fighting forest fires. “Everybody’s boyhood dream is to drive that big red truck,” he says. “I’m trained to do it, and I love to do it. If your house is on fire, I want to be there to put the fire out.”

Read the rest of the story here.

2 stories in the October 2008 Reader's Digest

I've got 2 stories in this month's Canadian edition of Reader's Digest. 

That's firefighter Tim Doane, on the cover, whom I interviewed for a story on volunteer firefighters. Also mentioned on the cover is "The Secret Men Won't Admit" -- my piece on men and depression.

Tim Doane and the rest of the volunteer firefighters were great to interview. They are just so into what they do. Doane spent 20 years as a firefighter and firefighting instructor in the military, and did two tours of duty in Afghanistan. After retiring from the military, he became a volunteer firefighter and an instructor at the Nova Scotia Firefighters School. 

After I'd spent some time with the volunteers, they decided I ought to suit up too, so I followed a couple of them into a building where a fire was burning at about 600 Fahrenheit. It took me about 20 minutes to get the gear on. I was in a highly controlled situation, but it made me appreciate how easy it could be to be overcome by panic in a hot, smoky, burning building.

If you'd like to hear more about volunteer firefighters, give a listen to my radio documentary on the challenges facing first responders in one Nova Scotia community. It's called "Where there's smoke, will there be firefighters?" and you can learn more about it and listen to it here.

The depression story has been a long time in the works, and I hope you get a chance to read it (neither piece is online, so you'll have to pick up the magazine). I am deeply appreciative of the willingness of the people I interviewed to share stories about some of the hardest times in their lives. Depression and other mental illnesses seem to be finally coming out of the closet, and that can only be a good thing.

Randy Neily

About a month ago, I interviewed Randy Neily. I was working on a documentary for the CBC Radio One show Maritime Magazine. The piece was called "Where There's Smoke, Will There Be Firefighters?" and you can listen to it here.

Randy was the deputy fire chief in Blandford, whose volunteer fire department the documentary profiled. A few weeks later, Randy passed away (there's a Facebook group celebrating his life here).

On the night I was at the Blandford fire station recording a lot of my material I wanted to speak to Randy, but something about him intimidated me. He was physically large, and didn't do a lot of the social niceties with me. We were introduced, and he went back to his business without showing much interest. I approached fire chief Philip Publicover and said I'd like to interview Randy but was feeling a bit intimidated. Did he think Randy would be amenable?

Philip laughed, said Randy might seem intimidating but wasn't. On the other hand, he didn't know how much he'd be willing to talk. Later, I approached Randy, and after some initial hesitation he agreed to be interviewed.

We sat in the fire station office, Randy under a poster for the movie Backdraft, and talked for half an hour. A couple of times we'd seem to be done and I'd turn off the recorder, but then the conversation would carry on and I'd start recording again.

In the end, I didn't wind up using any of those interviews (although if you listen really, really closely you can hear Randy laughing in the background at one point). There just wasn't room. But I learned a lot, and it was helpful.

Randy was a volunteer firefighter, paramedic and former firefighter instructor. He visited every single fire station in Nova Scotia (there are over 300 of them) and had taken photos at each place. I suggested it might make a good book -- and he said he had thought about that. I hope that archive of photos winds up somewhere where they'll be appreciated.

Here's a short clip of Randy expressing his worry about the future of the fire service, and his photos.

Where there's smoke... will there be firefighters?

"Where There's Smoke, Will There Be Firefighters?" my radio documentary on the challenges facing volunteer fire departments, is now online  It was produced by Christina Harnett, aired on CBC radio regionally, and runs 25 minutes.

The piece focuses on the fire station in Blandford, Nova Scotia, but a lot of the issues they face hold true for other departments across the country.

Listen to it here.

My volunteer fire service story on CBC Radio One's Maritime Magazine, Feb 24

A few months ago, I heard Blandford, Nova Scotia fire chief Philip Publicover on the CBC radio news. He was talking about the problems he faced in recruiting and keeping new members for his community's volunteer fire service.

I wanted to know more, so I pitched the CBC a story on the challenges facing rural fire departments.

The result is my half-hour documentary, "Where There's Smoke... Will There Be Firefighters?"-- which airs on CBC Radio One's Maritime Magazine, Sunday, February 24 at 8:30 AM. The producer is Christina Harnett.

The show focuses on Blandford, and how the challenges it faces are emblematic of challenges faced by fire services throughout the region -- and the country. I had no idea that the vast majority of the fire services in the country are volunteer, or that sometimes stations are so broke they can barely put fuel in the trucks.

I hope you can tune in. If you're outside the Maritimes, it will probably be too early for you. The piece will eventually go online, and I'll post a link.