January 22, 2021

Grey Highlands needs your fire story

Grey Highlands Public Library has a 'burning' question... What were fires, and firefighting, like in Grey Highlands in the past?

The library will soon film a ten minute history of fire service as part of its “Heritage Minute” series.

“Fires were personal and community tragedies” said John Butler, a volunteer working on this project, “but they were also occasions for heroism and for community mobilization to create and support volunteer fire departments. We need to know more about our fire tragedies and triumphs.”

The library welcomes pictures from South Grey News readers of fires and firefighting in Grey Highlands. And if anyone has an old fire engine or firefighting gear stored away in a back shed, the library would love a chance to take a photo of them or to borrow the artifacts long enough to film them.

Butler says the film will include several major fires, including the Chapman’s Ice Cream Factory fire, the Markdale landfill fire, and any of the fires that over time came close to destroying buildings on all corners of Flesherton’s main intersection. But the project is looking for any fire-related photos, stories or memorabilia (a barn fire photo would great). All material, filmed or not, will become part of a Grey Highlands Fire Story – a collection of fire-related material that will be shared with the library and the South Grey Museum, to let Grey Highlanders know about the tragedies, community mobilization, and heroism in their past.

Do you have photos or other material to share, or a fire story to tell? Contact John Butler at 519 923-6335, or email him at agora@xplornet.com.

 

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