The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

ittarkftam tteattnj air conditioning systems 191wesnatonsteuna7 uatthant 4711748 ratsiimiisljip vine dhuifioii tribune community doug hackert 6405339 m stouffville aluminum siding windows specializing in replacement doors and windows serving whitchurchstourfville uxbridge and area a metroland community newspaper wednesday february 24 1988 at firehall deputy chief enjoys duties by bruce stapley for murray emmerson new deputy fire chief for the town of whitchurchstouffville running a fire department is very much like running your own business and he should know for 20 years he was the driving force behind murray emmerson enterprises a hygrade fuels home heating and service outlet however hes since left his wife evelyn in charge becoming chief bill browns right hand man last september murray who has been with the stouffville fire departmentfor 12 years was promoted to captain three years ago when the posi tion of deputy chief became avail able he was chosen its not just an 8 to 4 job says the new deputy chief who will also be in charge of the depart ments fire prevention program sometimes you just keep run ning until you finally see day light business operation like a business murray main tains its important he try to run the fire department as effectively and economically as he can but you hate to see yourself without the right equipment sometimes or without the neces sary manpower for any even tuality he cites a case in point when a few weeks ago two separate calls came within two minutes fortu nately the manpower and equip ment was available to look after both calls youre considering the safety of your men on the one hand he says but on the other you al ways have to be ready for that other call it seems with fires it never rains but it pours things had been going pretty smoothly until fire broke out at three homes in the same week in midfebruary and if a call comes in the middle of the night the deputy chief and chief are still expected to show up first thing the next morning to perform their regular duties lots of paper work theres always a lot of paper work to be done right after a house fire murray claims then you ve got to go over all the equip ment to make sure its ready for the next call since being promoted to deputy chief the manitoba street resi dent has been busy keeping up with his new duties were play ing catch up theres so much you have to be on top of he says the new pumper has gone a long way towards equip ping the department to handle the evergrowing needs of the town the 250000 machine acquired last september is one of the latest pumpers on the market it fea tures a tcpmount pump control panel and powerful strobe lights powered by an independent generator thats a great asset at night says murray in the past it could get pretty dangerous with our guys working in the dark fulltime force he says its inevitable the town will someday be forced to go with a fulltime fire department were going to continue to get bigger but hopefully we can stay with our volunteer system for a few years yet murray maintains the 30 volun teers who man the district one firehall in stouffville along with the 10 who look after district two ballantrae are a capable group who work well as a team weve been lucky to have the volunteers we do he claims while the overall number of calls increases by ab out 15 per cent annually these are not all fire related were also called for automobile accidents or whenever there is the need for a quick response by a group of men like we send out backups available while hes constantly con cerned with leaving the hall short- staffed if two serious fire calls come it at once he explains his department has a mutual agree ment with others in the vicinity this leaves him free to call upon markham aurora newmarket mount albert uxbridge and pick ering fire halls if the need arises he feels while there are chal lenges and some long hours on occasion firef ighting is a reward ing career youre trying to pro vide a service he says there is a constant need to up date your skills he adds citing his upcoming fire prevention course at the gravenhurst fire college ive taken a lot of courses you have to keep up with everything automobile extrica tion hazardous materials and more lots of respect taking the job as deputy chief has helped murray develop a re spect for the entire firefighting system from the top down im more or less seeing it all put together from this vantage point he claims and he enjoys the responsibil ity you have to make some pret ty quick decisions sometimes and you always hope someone will say yes you made the right decision an arabian talec3 at your service phoioulm thomas deputy fire chief murray emmerson perches atop a new pumper purchased bythe whitchurchstouffville fire department murray was appointed deputy chief in september and enjoys the position although hes found its not just an 8 am to 4 pm job 20 years in hardware 7c9 whats on c1218 business c14 16