Toronto Fire Services honour eight firefighters in annual ceremony of remembrance
Posted June 11, 2023 5:22 pm.
Last Updated June 11, 2023 8:10 pm.
Toronto firefighters gathered to honour eight more fallen comrades at the City’s annual ceremony of remembrance on Sunday.
City officials, Toronto residents, and the family and loved ones of the fallen firefighters paid tribute at the Last Alarm memorial sculpture outside Toronto Fire and Marine Station 334.
The city says 327 firefighters have died in the line of duty in Toronto since 1848. Line-of-duty deaths include deaths related to incidents or illness in the course of firefighting duties.
Several firefighters added to this year’s memorial honour role died years ago, as it can take a long time for the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board to attribute the cause of death to firefighting, particularly in cancer cases caused by occupational exposure.
“The loss of these men was not in vain, they made a real difference,” said Kim Scanlan, the sister of late district chief Christian L. Cauchon who passed away on Nov. 18, 2022, following a long battle with cancer.
Jason Pal’s sister-in-law says the 48-year-old died from health issues developed on the job.
“The fact that he’s on that wall shows the respect and love that everybody had for Toronto Fire and for him personally,” said Tania Pal. “Monumental that he was able to do what he had to do and unfortunately passed the way he did.”
Fire chief Matthew Pegg noted during the sombre ceremony that there is a disproportionately high number of suicides among first responders.
“We’ve added some really important mental health and resiliency training into our recruitment and in-service. So we’re doing the right things, things are getting better but we’ve got a long way to go yet,” said Pegg.
“The government recently just added additional cancers to the list, what we call the presumptive illness list, and the eligibility dates back as far as 1960.”
Joining Cauchon and Pal on the memorial honour role are Capt. Douglas James Lynn, Capt. William (Bill) J. Wainwright, Ralph C. Sparks, Thomas Emmett Todd, Capt. Bradley Ronald Andrews, and Capt. Norman C. Sinclair.
