Maxime Gervais-Lafetière: Life at the Fire Hall

Here, read the transcript of the interview with Maxime Gervais-Lafetière, a firefighter in the Saint-Eustache Fire Safety Department.

***

When you arrive in a new fire hall, you see that there’s a lot of equipment. The way of working varies from one department to another. So, it can be stressful having to learn everything in your first months. You’re also learning… it’s a team. There’s already a chemistry among the team members. They’re pretty much a family. People get together, they meet up outside of work. They see each other at the fire hall and also in their personal lives, they do activities together. So, you have to integrate into the team. But people are so nice. The reason they’re firefighters is basically because they want to help people and they’re kind and helpful. So, it’s pretty easy to integrate into a team of firefighters. No one can say it’s hard or that they have any major problems. That first year as a new recruit, it’s… it’s great because that’s when you participate in your first responses, your first fires. You experience strong emotions and you learn what being a firefighter really means. Life at the fire hall, how to live with people. How to eat, share meals. Everyone… everyone is part of a team and a family. That’s what’s beautiful about being a firefighter.