A retiring volunteer fire department chief says his biggest accomplishment may have been witnessing Santa Claus trying to negotiate with a young child to come out of hiding. | SaltWire | READ MORE
David MacIntryre, who served as chief of the Southside Boularderie Volunteer Fire Department for about 40 years, first joined as chief in 1982 and just recently retired at the age of 73. IAN NATHANSON/CAPE BRETON POSTSOUTHSIDE BOULARDERIE, N.S. — A retiring volunteer fire department chief says his biggest accomplishment may have been witnessing Santa Claus trying to negotiate with a young child to come out of hiding.
“It was Santa Claus that talked him out,” MacIntyre said with a laugh. “To sit there and watch this … his mother is talking to him, I’m talking to him, some of the firefighters are talking to him. But nope, Santa Claus went up, got down on his knees, looking into that little hole, chatting with him.It was one of MacIntyre’s many fond memories as he gets ready to settle into retirement life at age 73. Colleagues and friends gathered on Saturday to honour the outgoing fire chief.
Through various provincial government grants and dealings with local governments — before and after the Cape Breton Regional Municipality was formed, MacIntyre said he was able to help grow the station with volunteer staff, necessary trucks and equipment, training sessions and more. MacIntyre recalled two notable barn fires the department fought around 1995: “One was the Van Dommelen brothers farm, the other the Fraser brothers. Both were hay barns, and they lost their supply of hay. The Van Dommelens lost two or three tractors; the Frasers lost a couple of cattle.”