The de Rouville Family
Here, read the transcript of the interview with Charles and Yvon de Rouville and Mathieu Hertel de Rouville, chief and firefighters in the Saint-Eustache Fire Safety Department.
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Yvon de Rouville: There’s a lot of pride. When I found out that he wanted to be a firefighter… I wasn’t quite as enthusiastic about it. I thought, “It’s a really long haul. And when they get there, not many end up being chosen.” It’s a path that… if you don’t make it, you’ve wasted years of your life. One of my friends in the Department suggested to me, he said, “You should let him do it if he wants. Let him go ahead.” Today I don’t regret it. And when I found out that he was going to join Saint-Eustache, well geez, I couldn’t be anything but happy. I thought, “Now I’ll be able to work with my son. Not many people get that opportunity and…” Anyway, I really like it now. It’s a… At the fire hall, life at the fire hall, with my son and me there, it’s special. It wasn’t something I thought would happen years ago, but I accept it. It’s really, really, really great.
Mathieu Hertel de Rouville: When I found out that I’d been hired by the City of Saint-Eustache, I was working at my old job, which was delivering cars. And I got the phone call. I looked at my phone and automatically recognized the number that was calling me. It was the number of the city. The only connection I had with that number was for being hired as a firefighter. Before that, I’d been told that I was 18th on a… call-back list. But they were hiring 16 first to replace the first 16 full-time positions, which they filled with 16 extra full-time people. So, I was 18th, in other words second on the call-back list, after the 16… the first 16 were hired. So, it took around… if I remember correctly, six to eight months before … I got the call to tell me that… if I was still interested in a job… a job as a firefighter. I didn’t hesitate for a second. I just said, “Yes, I’m still interested.” That was when… I knew I was going to be hired in Saint-Eustache.”