FIRE FIGHTER TRAINING - Fire Fighter training from 1946 through part of 1947 had been carried out at RCAF Stn Mt View. The school closed late in 1947 and was scheduled to reopen at RCAF Stn Trenton in 1948. Mt View had been closed down to a storage site. Just after New Years in 1948 the first course at the new location was loaded. What little bit of equipment was available had been moved from Mt View. Two instructors were posted in. The senior was F/S Jock Smith and he was supported (in every sense of the word) by Cpl Johnny Cowell. The training course was 6 weeks long. Even in those early days the emphasis was on basics with very little fire prevention. In those 6 short weeks we learned about hose and nozzles, extinguishers, some fire hazards and how to clean floors. One of our main training aids was a 45 ft wall ladder equipped with tormentor poles. Although it was the only one of its kind in the RCAF, it was available and we had to learn to raise it. Practical consisted of G-10 pump operation. The promised crash tender did not turn up until near the end of the course so we crammed knowledge of it just before graduation. If memory serves me right, we had one small fire down near the old seaplane base on the Trenton waterfront. The total school facilities consisted of a classroom, a small section of the seaplane hangar for storage of what few items were in the school inventory, and the use of the seaplane ramp for pumper practice. But it was a beginning and many of the personnel who were later to become Sr NCO's and Commissioned Officers got their start there.

RCAF DET FT ST JOHN - Following graduation we were dispersed to various Fire Halls throughout the RCAF. My posting was Ft St John, in northern BC. It was an ex USAF/RCAF station on the Northwest Staging Route and was now a detachment of RCAF Stn Ft Nelson. The NCO I/C Fire Hall was Cpl Jimmy Hollins. He had a staff of 11 to provide protection to the detachment and to provide aid to the town of Ft St John, some 4 miles north. Our mobile equipment consisted of a G10 pumper and a G-15 crash tender. Besides being well equipped with standard RCAF items, we inherited quite a bit of ex USAF equipment, left there upon their pullout at the end of WW II. Some interesting items that come to mind were 1 gallon pressurized CTC extinguishers, 75 lb wheeled CO2 flightline units and bunker suits. At that time the RCAF standard issue was hip boots, a turnout coat, standard FF helmet and mitts (chopper). We were part of the Northwest Air Command, headquartered at Edmonton. The Command Fire Protection Officer (CFPO) was WO Fred Sacho. His assistant and later the CFPO was F/S "Bull" McFadyn. We used to dread their semiannual inspection tour.

By Phil Brown, Major, Retired - (Excerpts From Phil's History Of The Fire Service 1939-1975)