Never Forgotten

February 4th, 2007 … Two Winnipeg Fire Captains Die in Fire

Winnipeg fire captains Harold Lessard and Tom Nichols.  Capt. Tom Nichols, 57, and Capt. Harold Lessard, 55, both had more than 30 years of experience.

You go in to fight a fire, and unfortunately two of the best guys you could ever meet didn’t make it out. Four other firefighters were taken to hospital. One remained in critical condition with extreme burns, while another was stable with burns to 15 per cent of his body. The other two injured firefighters were treated for minor burns and released.

Firefighters arrived on the scene of the fire Sunday February 4th, 2007 around 8 p.m. local time. Neighbors say two teenagers were in the home, studying in the basement, but got out safely. Six fire fighters went inside to search for anyone left inside when it appears they were trapped on the second floor by what was likely a flashover. A flashover is every firefighter’s nightmare. What happens is almost simultaneously, a whole section of the building will erupt into a huge fireball in which the temperatures could go from hundreds of degrees Celsius to thousands of degrees Celsius within seconds. Our gear is the best state-of-the-art gear that we could possibly have. It protects us, but it’s not a coat of armor. There are limits. And when you have a flashover where it goes to thousands of degrees Celsius within seconds, you’re going to have failures of breathing apparatus. You’re going to have failures of protective clothing. The heat was reportedly so intense, it melted the radio of one of the firefighters. The blaze burned intensely, even in the -39-degrees-Celsius temperatures before being put out. Aerial television images showed the home lighting up the surrounding neighborhood. Four Winnipeg Transit buses were brought in to evacuate 15 to 20 of the surrounding houses.  Shaken area residents watched the scene unfold. One after another, firefighters were pulling their comrades out into the ambulances. Everyone was yelling for medics, trying to be as calm as can be.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/2-firefighters-killed-in-winnipeg-blaze-were-great-guys-1.675357

If tears could build a stairway
And memories were a lane,
I would walk right up to Heaven
To bring you home again.
No farewell words were spoken.
No time to say goodbye.
You were gone before we knew it,
And only God knows why.
My heart still aches in sadness
And secret tears still flow.
What it meant to lose you,
No one will ever know.
If I had one lifetime wish
One dream that could come true
I’d pray to God so hard
For yesterday and for you.
The things we feel so deeply
Are the hardest things to say.
But we, your ‘brothers’, love you
In a very special way.
Ever since you passed away,
A thousand times we’ve cried.
If only ‘brotherly love’ could have saved you
You never would have died.

The Lessard|Nichols scholarship Fund has been established to provide financial support to qualifying candidates enrolling at the Manitoba Emergency Services College in Brandon, MB. The Fund is entirely supported through the sale of Jason Buhr’s tribute CD “Unite Our Hearts Today” and donations.CD “Unite Our Hearts Today” and donations.

Please support the Fund and help spread the word. Visit:

https://www.facebook.com/Lessard.Nichols.Scholarship/info