Fire Chief for a Day in Ste-Justine-de-Newton

Text and photos by Stephane Trottier
Translation from French by James R. Hay

Saturday, October 28, 2006 on a rainy fall day saw Ste-Justine-de-Newton’s Fire Chief for a day. The chief for this year was 8 year-old Marie Philippe Lefebvre.

After a drawing contest at the Ste-Justine-de-Newton school, Miss Lefebvre was chosen for a day with the firefighters at station 20. The firefighters went to pick her up from her home in their new pump. Returning to the station with the Chief For A Day she was presented with a shirt and hat as a gift of the director.

On the menu for the day was the inspection of the trucks, the use of class A fire extinguishers and training for extricating a victim from a car. In the morning Marie Philippe was given the opportunity to receive a call for a fire alarm at the community hall. After verification it proved to be a false alarm.

The chief and her firefighters went to eat at McDonald’s in the company of the Chief For A Day of Ste-Marthe-de-Vaudreuil as well as the Ste-Marthe firefighters.

Upon returning from dinner a call was received for an accident on one of the agricultural roads in Ste-Justine. Since mutual aid is always used between the Ste-Justine and Ste-Marthe fire departments the two Fire Chiefs For A Day responded to the call with their firefighters. Units 809 and 509 from Ste-Marth and 220 from Ste-Justine responded to the call.

Once back in the station the firefighters of Ste-Justine cleaned their equipment and returned their vehicles to service.