O'Leary Fire Department celebrates 85th anniversary through photos and memories
CBC
It's been more than 25 years since Wyman Harris retired from the O'Leary Volunteer Fire Department. But when he looks at photos from back then, it seems like just yesterday.
"I've seen them before, but you kind of forget," said Harris, holding a photo of himself in the late 1990s.
The photos have been brought out of storage as part of the department's 85th anniversary celebration. Current fire chief Ron Phillips says the department got started in 1939 when federal defence funding was offered at the start of the Second World War.
"They built that little building, and bought their first truck and actually got some equipment, and slowly built from there," he said.
Over the years, the fire station has moved twice, from the original one-bay wooden building to a second location on Willow Avenue in the 1970s, and finally to the current building in the mid-1990s.
"You could just get one truck in," Harris said of the original building, which was still in use when he joined the department.
"We had a little space heater. We all used to huddle around it to keep warm when we used to have our meetings. There was probably a half a dozen of us."
Harris was a firefighter for 25 years. But for him and others, it's something you don't really retire from. That includes his son, Dana Harris, who was with the department for about a decade in the '80s and '90s and eventually served two years as chief.
"You're always excited and proud of your dad going out the door to fight a fire," said the younger Harris. "So when I was...19, 20, I was old enough to join the department and I did."
One of the things he remembers most is how the other firefighters modified regular trucks into firetrucks.
"We would get in the back of those trucks — no seat belts, just a wooden bench to sit on. The doors had like cupboard latches on them," he said. "Today the equipment they drive is definitely a lot more suited for safety…But luckily back then we didn't ever lose anybody and we all got to where we needed to go safely."
Personal gear has also improved a lot over the years, especially since Wyman Harris joined.
"Sometimes we didn't have too much but we got by with it, didn't we?"
Carol Gillis was one of the first female firefighters to join, back in 2001.
This First Person column is the experience of Andrew Stetson, a writer and storyteller in P.E.I. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
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