The old Main Street fire hall hosted a generational firefighter reunion July 21 that saw volunteers from the ‘70s mingling with old friends and their current-day counterparts.
Airdrie firefighter Damon Johnson said the reunion has been in the works for a year, and the result was full of chatter and smiles.
“It brings me back to where I started,” he said. “It brings me back to the guys that trained me, taught me, mentored me.”
Johnson started as a volunteer firefighter with Airdrie Emergency Services in 1991, when the organization was volunteer-operated. As a trained Emergency Medical Technician (EMT), Johnson said he would take both medical and fire calls in those years – he even delivered a baby in an ambulance on the highway to Calgary, he said.
“It’s exciting, but at the same time, there’s the unknown,” he said. “Because until you get where you’re going, you have no clue what you’re going into.”
Firefighters work 24-hour shifts where they eat, train, or visit until a call comes in – but once they’re on the scene, he said, a firefighter’s life is in their partner’s hands.
“A lot of times, when someone calls 911, they’re having the worst day of their life,” he said. “When you start off as a volunteer, you’re just giving your own time away from your family in order to be there to help somebody else’s.”
The camaraderie between firefighters is so strong, Johnson said he considers them his second family. A bond can be felt across borders, too – Johnson said he was invited to dinner by a Chicago fire station when he stopped by to trade crests on a trip to the Windy City.
That bond could also be seen at the reunion, with past firefighters catching up on old times and new firefighters getting to know the history – two worlds connecting.
Many had moved on to different homes or work, Johnson said, so this was the first time they had seen each other in years. He said he saw his old fire chief at the reunion – someone he hadn’t seen in 25 years.
Some brought their families, as well.
“We opened [the reunion] up not just to the firefighters, but to the families, because, in the past, they’ve given a lot,” Johnson said. “Whether that meant you were missing a dinner, a birthday, Christmas – whatever the case may be.”
The Main Street station is no longer an active fire hall, Johnson said, but for a few hours July 21, the empty truck bays were brimming with life, desserts, old photos and smiles.
