Two members of HMCS Jolliet fight a ferocious fire

Navy News / July 7, 2021

By Acting Sub-Lieutenant Hugo Porlier

Two Naval Reserve members from Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Joliett demonstrated courage, devotion, altruism, and perseverance—all crucial abilities for the two members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) when they fought a fire in Sept-Iles on 16 April 2021.

During the rescue operation, neither the intense heat nor the smoke stopped the two reservists from finishing the job and saving lives.

Sailor 1st Class (S1) Michaël Massé and Sailor 2nd Class (S2) Alpha Tall are both civilian fire fighters, but neither could have anticipated the events that transpired that day.

“What I find exciting in this line of work is going to work every day not knowing what the day will bring. It could start out as a quiet day where we just do our routine maintenance, and then we get a call from Central and your adrenaline gets going,” S1 Massé said, referring to the building fire alert they received.

After he spotted someone trapped on a third floor balcony, S1 Massé immediately notified the ladder operator that they would need to conduct a risky evacuation. The smoke was already too thick and the ladder operator was unable to move the basket into the right position, so S1 Massé climbed up to the basket and repositioned the ladder using the basket controls. Despite the thick smoke, he succeeded in rescuing a lady and her dog.

After saving the woman from the balcony, Massé and his colleague entered the building and went up to the third floor. Despite near zero visibility and intense heat, S1 Massé’s team and a second group of fire fighters continued to fight the fire from the inside of the building.

S1 Massé collapsed from heat stroke when he exited the building. He was taken by paramedics to the hospital; he is now fully recovered and ready to return to work.

Fighting fires is a team effort, and every task is crucial to the success of the operation. S2 Tall’s job was to get on the roof of the building and ventilate the fire by making holes. These holes serve two main purposes: the first is to ventilate as much smoke as possible out of the building to help the fire fighters on the inside see what they’re doing, and the second is to vent heat from the fire to the outside, which again is needed to help make conditions on the inside of the building easier for the firefighters.

S2 Tall’s second job was to suppress flames climbing up one side of the building. The main objective is to put out the fire, but also to protect neighbouring buildings from damage to limit the number of people who could be rendered homeless.

“The most challenging part about this job is that you never really know just what you will encounter; it is an ongoing challenge. Today we might help someone who was in a car crash, tomorrow we could be called to a house fire, and we have to stay calm in each call,” he added with pride.

Firefighters and military service members share many of the same skills needed to do their jobs. Diligence and efficiency are crucial because lives literally depend on it. The two sailors agree that the training sessions and experiences from the military are assets when it comes to firefighting, and vice versa with firefighter skills proving beneficial to military members. S1 Massé is currently taking courses to become an operations officer for the Sept-Iles fire service in Quebec, while S2 Tall wants to become a full time fire fighter with the CAF.

Despite the colossal effort needed to fight this fire, strong teamwork meant that physical injuries were kept to a minimum. Unfortunately the building was not saved, resulting in six families being without a home and being cared for by various organizations like the Red Cross. After all that happened, S1 Massé and S2 Tall were proud to represent the Naval Reserve through their actions and devotion. They have once again proved that HMCS Joliett‘s creed is strong and well: Nothing can stop us!

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