Fire Chief Stewart looks back on long career

Fire Chief Stewart looks back on long career. Toronto Fire Chief Bill Stewart, at fire headquarters on Wednesday, will be retiring from the fire service in April after nearly 40 years on the job. (Feb. 15, 2012) Staff photo/ANDREW PALAMARCHUK

Stewart, who recently announced his intention to retire, is proud of his family's deep roots in the fire service.

"My family has been involved in fire fighting since the 1880s," he said in an interview Wednesday, Feb. 15. "It started with my great uncles and my father and then myself and now my son."

Stewart joined the then Borough of North York Fire Department on Nov. 20, 1972, a time when firefighters wore rubber boots and a fire coat and rode on the tailboard of trucks.

"Certainly in the past 40 years the technology has changed, fire fighting tactics to some degree have changed," Stewart said. "When I started, the air cylinder that we wore and the mask assembly was 36 pounds; it was a steel cylinder and harness assembly. Today that harness assembly and bottle weighs about 19 pounds."

Stewart, 60, has been Toronto's fire chief since May 1, 2003 and will retire on April 30.

"I'll miss the people, the interaction with them on a day-to-day basis, and of course the excitement on the odd occasion when I get out to a call," he said.

Stewart was at the scene of several high-profile fires over the years.

He was assistant deputy fire chief at the North York department in January 1995 when he responded to a highrise fire at 2 Forest Laneway where six people died.

"They got out of their apartments. They thought that if they could get to the roof hatch, then they would be rescued from the roof," Stewart said. "It was locked and they couldn't get to the roof and they were overcome with smoke in both stairwells."

An investigation determined the fire was caused by careless smoking.

More recently, in September 2010, Stewart was on scene of a six-alarm highrise fire at 200 Wellesley St.

"We did 50 rescues on that day. It was a hot and humid day," he said. "It was a wind-driven fire, 50 to 70 kilometres an hour of wind coming in on the building. Our crews took a terrific beating with the heat but...no one lost their life."

Stewart was on vacation in New Brunswick when an explosion rocked the Sunrise Propane facility in Downsview in August 2008.

District Chief Bob Leek, the service's chief emergency planning officer, died of a heart attack at the scene.

Stewart returned to Toronto the next day.

"We were at that fire for 33 days. It's probably the longest duration fire we've had in the history of Toronto," he said.

Stewart is past president of the Institution of Fire Engineers and the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association. He said he intends to remain involved in both of those organizations while also enjoying his hobbies: travelling, golfing, skiing and scuba diving.