Maxime Gervais-Lafetière: Becoming a Firefighter

Here, read the transcript of the interview with Alexandre Couture, a firefighter in the Saint-Eustache Fire Safety Department.

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I had an uncle who was a firefighter in the city of Montreal. He invited me to spend a whole day with him and his colleagues. So, I went with them. I hadn’t expected to enjoy it so much,  and I hadn’t realized there would be such a strong team spirit on a team… of firefighters. It’s really just like a family. And during the day I spent with them, they really included me in their group. I had the chance to participate in all their daily activities: their meals, everything. They even took me out on calls. So, I got to experience what it’s really like to respond to a call in a fire truck. What a fire call is. They had the start of a fire [in a low wall]. I got to see all that. I didn’t participate in the call – definitely not! But it really got me hooked when I saw what a great job it was and how they helped people.