South Frontenac Fire Chief wins humanitarian award

May 24, 2017

Chief Rick Cheseborough personifies the South Frontenac Fire department. Whenever and wherever the department is called out on a major call in the vast expanse of the township, he is there to support the firefighters.

Not many people in South Frontenac were aware, however, about the reputation Cheseborough has built within the firefighting community over the last 30 or more years, starting from his days as a volunteer with the former Pittsburgh Township fire department.

They know now, however, since Cheseborough won the Bill Williams Humanitarian award at the annual gathering of chiefs from the 400 plus Ontario fire departments in Toronto in early May.

Don King, currently a rep for Global Fire Safety, a major supplier of fire equipment, met a younger Rick Cheseborough in 1986.

“I was the national sales manager for Hearst Sales Jaws of Life and I was conducting training on how to use the equipment. I trained him on auto extrication, cold water rescue, all while he was a volunteer. I don’t know if people realise that Rick was always a volunteer firefighter. He took training over the years on weekends and vacations for all of his qualifications and on the business side of it before becoming a full time Fire Chief in South Frontenac. He knows what his crews face as volunteers because he has lived it,” said King in a telephone interview.

King said that he was very happy to hear that Cheseborough was this years recipient of the award, which given out jointly by his company and the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs.

“The Association of Fire Chiefs handles the entire process of choosing a winner, we don’t see any of that. It is named for Bill Williams, who was a firefighter and later a salesman of fire equipment. Bill had a generous personality, he was always giving of his time, he was a very benevolent man, and that is what the award is all about,” he said.

To cite an example, King talked about an elderly woman in South Frontenac who had sort of been adopted by the department after they had received a number of medical calls for service, some of them unnecessary because her health monitors kept going off when she was not in distress. She was embarrassed by these calls and found them stressful. Eventually Cheseborough gave her his own phone numbers so she could phone and let him know if the call was necessary or not.”

“Not too many Fire Chiefs give out their phone number to residents,” said King.

King said that Cheseborough was not sure he was going to attend this years conference because he was busy and did not necessarily want to spend the department’s money because he has other requests going before Council for equipment and new halls, so he ended up being encouraged to go by senior township staff who were told to make sure he went because he was going to win an award.

Fire Chief Gary Bullock of the Gananoque Fire Department has also known Cheseborough from his Pittsburgh department days. A recipient of the Bill Williams award himself two years ago, Bullock sent a letter of nomination for the award.

“I thought Rick should be recognised for his commitment to South Frontenac and to the people who live there, both as Fire Chief and as a leader and for his contributions to the community. When I won the award, it was the highlight of my 53 year career and it is an honour to have it hanging in my home. I know Rick doesn’t like to be singled out, but I’m glad he won the award this year because it is well deserved,” said Bullock.