Winner Announced in the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Memorial Competition

The National Capital Commission (NCC) and the Canadian Fallen Firefighters Foundation (CFFF) announced in September 2010 the winning concept for the construction of the Canadian Firefighters Memorial which will be erected on LeBreton Flats. The team, comprised of artist Douglas Coupland from Vancouver and Mary Tremain, partner at PLANT Architect Inc. from Toronto, won the Canada-wide competition with their concept “We Were There”.

“I wanted the monument to convey deep emotion and simple dignity,” said artist Douglas Coupland. “I want people to eat their lunch there, read, play with their kids — and each time they do so, a small part of themselves will reflect on firefighters and what they do every day when they go to work.”

The new memorial, intended as a national commemoration recognizing firefighters and firefighting from all parts of the country, is to be located on a prominent site owned by the National Capital Commission at LeBreton Flats near the Canadian War Museum. This highly visible site, on Wellington Street at the corner of Lett Street, was prepared in 2009 by the NCC in anticipation of this monument.

Construction will begin in the summer of 2011 and the monument will be unveiled in September 2012.

The CFFF is a registered charity and operates by fundraising. For information regarding the Canadian Firefighters Memorial, please visit: http://www.cfff.ca.


Becky Harmata
The Fire Emporium
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Firefighter Tribute Commentary

After all the years I’ve been dispensing advice and preaching the gospel according to me, I can’t believe I have never yet expressed appreciation and admiration for firefighters. What an oversight!

Firefighters are unique in our society…the only people whose job it is to go into an inferno, when common sense and every human instinct tells us to get out and stay out. If you come to grief, whether in a traffic or water accident, storm, flood, earthquake…you name it…you are most likely to be saved by a firefighter.

We were sitting at dinner with a firefighter on the weekend when a guest began to choke and collapsed. Immediately, our friend began using the Heimlich maneuver, a technique used to dislodge an object blocking someone's airway. I’m sure you know it works by sending a blast of air upward through the windpipe. But there’s a big difference between training practice and the real thing. It took considerable physical strength, it took considerable emotional strength and it took what seemed like forever! But it saved a person’s life which is why I vowed to take another St. John Ambulance course and went on line to print out a copy of the 4-step Heimlich procedure.

Earlier in the week, this same firefighter went through incredible anguish when two of his closest friends ran into trouble inside the burning Reed’s Restaurant in Meaford. And just the week before, he fought the toughest blaze of his thirty-year career at Chapman’s Ice Cream in Markdale.

Boy, this would not be the job for me! Honestly, until the other night I didn’t understand why a person would risk life and limb going into a building where you can’t see and you can’t breath and the flames lick at you. I told him it doesn’t make any sense to accept the cumulative damage of inhaling smoke and other toxins fighting fire after fire.

No, it’s not for me, but at least I get it now. This man doesn’t see himself as a hero, but there’s no other word for it. They are heroes and this is my salute to firefighters…thank you…because you really do put others first…you care beyond my mere words.

Source: Bayshore Broadcasting News Centre
September 15, 2009
by: Ross Kentner

Becky Harmata
The Fire Emporium
Toll Free: 866-832-1468
Fax: 250-769-3588
Email: info@fireemporium.com
Web: http://www.fireemporium.com