Cambridge fire chief owes his life to firefighters
CAMBRIDGE — When Bill Chesney was a baby and couldn't breathe, it was Galt firefighters who helped save his life.
Now, as the Cambridge fire chief gets ready to retire after 37 years, he's proud of his part in ensuring city firefighters have the medical skills to help save more lives.
Chesney, 60, was hired as a firefighter in 1976, three years after Cambridge was created by amalgamating Galt, Preston, Hespeler and parts of Waterloo Township. He never asked, but it's likely he worked beside firefighters who rushed to his parents' house 22 years before.
"I had respiratory problems as a baby. I was resuscitated by the Galt Fire Department — twice — before I was one," he said.
In the early 1980s, Chesney enrolled in the ambulance and emergency care course at Conestoga College. He wanted the extra medical training so he could better handle the unexpected while on duty at the firehall. That led to his participation in upgrading first aid training for all city firefighters, under then chief Bill Brown.
"At that time, we only had very basic first aid and resuscitation skills. We were very good at fighting fires. We weren't very good at taking care of victims of fires."
In 1988, Cambridge was the first fire department to be part of a new "tiered response" program starting in Waterloo Region.
Firefighters and Waterloo Regional Police were sent on life-threatening medical calls to start first aid before ambulances arrived.
It's now the standard across the region for emergency medical care, after expanding to include heart-starting defibrillators on all fire trucks.
Firefighters sometimes board ambulances to help paramedics care for critically ill patients on the way to hospital.
"It turned out really well. Now over 50 per cent of our calls are medical calls," Chesney said.
There's tradition of public service in the Chesney family.
His grandfather, Charles, was Galt city treasurer. His father, Byng, was a Galt police officer.
Combined with his 37 years, that's more than 90 years of public service in his hometown.
"It was kind a natural thing. We always worked for the City of Galt or City of Cambridge," Chesney said.
His children followed the tradition, mostly.
Kevin is a paramedic who worked for Waterloo Region before moving to British Columbia. Leah is an emergency nurse in B.C.
His younger daughter Megan bent the tradition: she married a paramedic. But she followed in her father's footsteps by moving to the Yukon. That's where Chesney worked for a couple of years in silver mines after high school before applying to be a firefighter.
Not long after joining the fire department, Chesney was sent to his first big fire, at MacDonald Steel. He learned on the job how to keep his wits, under the watch of veteran firefighters.
What he did at fires as a rookie he wouldn't allow his firefighters to do now. Health and safety is now paramount, with modern protective equipment and safety procedures to minimize risk to firefighters.
"It was only by good luck, not good management, that a lot of us got through," he said of his early years on fire trucks.
He worked his way up through the department to deputy chief in 2001, then chief in 2011.
Chesney's last day of work is June 30. In retirement, he plans to hunt, fish, boat and spend time at the family cottage on the Bruce Peninsula with his wife, Carol.
The process to find Chesney's replacement hasn't been finalized, said Gary Dyke, city chief administrative officer.
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