Three Guelph-Eramosa firefighters have been awarded 25-year service medals from the Office of the Ontario Fire Marshall.
Guelph-Eramosa Fire Department members Steve Liebig, Bernie Liebig and Dave Richardson received long-service medals at the Sept. 5 council meeting.
“Too often volunteer firefighters like yourselves remain the unsung heroes of our community,” said Guelph-Eramosa Mayor Chris White.
“Your dedication and drive to serve the residents of the Township of Guelph-Eramosa is invaluable. And to think that you have spent the last 25 years helping to protect the community you proudly serve is nothing short of inspiring.”
The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal awards long service medals to firefighters who have worked for 25 years in suppression, training, public education, inspections and communications.
“I just want to reiterate the importance of the volunteer fire program within our community and all of our dedicated people here tonight,” said Fire Chief John Osborne. “We sometimes take it for granted.
“We all have … full-time jobs. We all go to it in the morning or at night … and when that call comes in these are the people in our community that get up no matter the weather, no matter the time, no matter what their stresses are … and they still come out to our community to help our community …”
Osborne said that he admires volunteer firefighters “a little bit more” than full-time firefighters.
“Full-time fire service … those people get paid for what they’re doing and when they leave work they leave work at work,” he explained.
“These volunteer firefighters, they live it. They do it all the time and … they will leave work to go to a call, they will get up in the middle of the night and leave a nice warm bed to go to Mrs. Smith, who’s having difficulty breathing or a motor vehicle collision or … a major fire.”
White told the firefighters the township would be “lost” without their service.
Steven Liebig said, “In life I’ve noticed that you go through moments, that there’s always that moment in time and life. And when my time is done here with the department, on this Earth, the one thing I’ll always remember is the moments I spent with all you guys and I really appreciate that,” Steven said. “That’s made life really good for me.”
White also acknowledged the support and sacrifices of each of the firefighters’ families.
“The partners and spouses play a major role here and we really appreciate and understand that in a volunteer situation you’re called out at any given time,” he said. “God forbid you’re off on a call, so it’s got to be very worrying for the spouses.”
Steven, Bernie and Richardson received the recognition medal as well as a certificate from the township.
“My hat is off to these dedicated souls that help protect our community all the time – and when we can recognize someone for 25 years, that’s pretty amazing,” Osborne said. “And that’s uninterrupted 25 years.”
