Tim Beebe is the fire chief in Upsala, Ont. He can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Fixers and fakers

Oct. 1, 2008

“Are you okay down there?” I squinted through falling snowflakes into the snarl of metal, wheels and engine parts. I could just see the corner of the trucker’s face about five feet away, deep in the bowels of the wreck. He may as well have been on the other side of the continent.

“I’m OK,” he replied. “I’m just stuck.”

“Don’t move,” I said, “we’ll get you out in no time.” I don’t usually lie, especially to trapped truck drivers, but this seemed like a good time to make an exception. I didn’t really want him to know that I felt like a janitor doing brain surgery. Our rescue kit consisted of a couple of hacksaws, a come-along, and a bag of hand tools. This was my first extrication, and I was supposed to be in charge. Sound crazy? Believe me it was.

I  was in the middle of pretending I knew what to do when Ignace Fire Department arrived with its heavy hydraulics and experienced crew. The captain asked what I needed. I said something like, “Get him out, and we’ll cheer you on.” He assigned his crew, and had the trucker on a backboard in short order. I went away humbled, but better prepared to face the next mess.

Fixing messes. That’s what firefighters do. We train long and hard, but it takes more than training. It takes a particular mindset, something not everyone has.

Some folks see a mess and say, “Holy cow! What a mess!” They’re the rubbernecks that brag about the huge crash they saw today. Anyone can be a member of this crowd.

Politicians at election time are at the head of the pack. They usually take it a step further by promising to fix the mess if you vote them in. “Just elect us, pretty please, and we’ll fix the economy, stop climate change and give every Canadian a free trip to the moon.”

The next group says, “Who can I blame for this mess?” These are the guys with the tape measures and cameras at the crash scene. Their kids are the tattletale siblings that say, “Mommy! Johnny spilled milk all over the floor!” Politicians excel in this group too with their attack ads. “Don’t elect those imbeciles! They made this mess.” The faultfinders are annoyingly observant, but they have their place. You definitely want them on your inspection and investigation teams.

The third group sizes up the mess and says, “I can fix that!” Frontline firefighters are among those that have this mindset. They respond to spilled milk with a mop. They don’t care who did it. They get their satisfaction from fixing chaos.

Now, close your eyes and let me paint a picture for you. (OK, open them again so you can finish reading.) Image me using the wrecked tractor-trailer as a platform to give a speech to the arriving crews and rubbernecking public.

“I promise, if I am elected incident commander, I will get this trucker out in no time. Furthermore, I will fix this mess, figure out who is at fault and hold them personally responsible for their actions.” I can almost hear the trucker below me saying, “Can you just let those Ignace guys get on with the show, and we can discuss this later?”

Maybe some of our leaders could take a lesson from the firefighter. The best fix on that snowy April morning was for me to get out of the way so someone more qualified could do the job.

Now here’s an idea. Let’s make every aspiring politician serve a year as a volunteer firefighter. Even better, an unemployed volunteer firefighter in northwestern Ontario. If they survive this introduction into the real world, they can run for office. If they don’t, at least we had an extra set of hands for a while. As a side benefit, we’ll eliminate some of the riffraff in the process.

I don’t want to be unfair to our venerable leaders. I suspect that there are some who have the heart to fix things, but choosing the right name on the ballot makes Russian roulette look like a game of marbles. It seems the further up the ladder they climb, the more useless they become. Everyone knows the firefighter is there to help. But how often do you hear people talk about the “selfless bureaucrat” or the “virtuous politician?”

By the time you get to the prime minister, well, the poor chap doesn’t have a chance. My advice? Vote for the guy with the mop.

As for our trucker friend, he was released from the hospital later that day, battered but in good shape, all things considered. Not long after, I heard he was on the Ignace Fire Department. I’ve got to hand it to those guys, they’ve got a unique recruitment strategy.

Some people dream of worthy accomplishments. Others stay awake and do them.

-Unknown