Hagersville fire chief Ross (Buck) Slote knew he would have his hands full as he drove through the countryside on that cold night of Feb. 12, 1990.
Slote was on his way to what would become known as the Hagersville Tire Fire, a blaze that would last for 17 days and consume 14 millions tires collected by Ed Straza with the idea of recycling.
“As soon as I cleared Hagersville, I could see the fire and I called back to get the mutual aid going because we were going to need it,” Slote told The Spectator in 2000.
“I could see it from Hagersville and the dump was not quite five miles from the town.”
Slote said firefighters tried to get a pumper near a burning tire pile, but they couldn’t because it was too dangerous. They resorted to carrying in a hose. By daylight, he said the entire tire dump was on fire.
“We had a hell of a fire on our hands,” Slote said.
Slote — who died on July 15 at age 85 — was the first firefighter to arrive at Straza’s business (the Tyre King) on Concession 13 Walpole, near Regional Road 74 County Line, just north of Townsend. According to his logbook, the fire call came in at 1:08 a.m. and Slote arrived on the scene four minutes later after he was paged at his home.
Although the fire was in the former City of Nanticoke, it paid a fee to the then Town of Haldimand for fire protection of that area. Hagersville was the nearest station.
The first Hagersville fire truck arrived 10 minutes later with 23 volunteer firefighters. They were not the last. The blaze eventually pulled in more than 200 volunteer firefighters from nine stations across Haldimand and Norfolk, such as Cayuga, Waterford, Simcoe and Fisherville, plus Six Nations. The province contributed 40 forest firefighters from such places as Thunder Bay and Haliburton. It also sent in water bombers from Sault Ste. Marie.
This wasn’t the first time Slote had been to the Tyre King. A fire broke out there in 1977 and it took firefighters seven hours to put it out. But, obviously, this was much larger. The fire was set as a lark by five teenage boys. They were arrested and four were punished by the courts.
Slote was at the scene from “daylight to dusk” and during the first three days had catnaps at the firehall.
“It’s getting tough,” Slote told The Spec a few days after the fire broke out. “The guys are like zombies. They’re trying to look after their ordinary jobs, their family life and do this too. They just eat a bit, sleep a bit and work a whole lot.”
Three firefighters were hurt, but none seriously. One got hit by a loose fire hose and another was bitten by a raccoon.
The fire was officially declared out on March 1. A party was held soon after at the Hagersville firehall and more than 200 firefighters and their families attended.
“I think we’d done a hell of a job,” Slote told The Spec. “We had phone calls from people in the United States, saying we would never put it out, that it would take three months or burn for a year.”
Slote served as a firefighter between 1959-2005 and was chief between 1975-1992. He worked as a mechanic and truck driver and operated Peter Slote & Sons Transport with his father, Peter, and brother, Carl. He served on the former village of Hagersville council and was a member of the Hagersville Legion and Hagersville Lions Club.
Slote is survived by his son, Cary, daughter, Nikki and three grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Mary Munro, of Burlington and his former wife, Donna. He was predeceased by his brother, Carl and sister, Mildred.