Skip to content

History of Alberta Hospital’s volunteer fire crew - Reflections of Ponoka

13776ponoka1950FireTruck
New fire truck for Alberta Hospital in the 1950s

In the initial plans for the construction of the Provincial Mental Hospital at Ponoka both the contractors and administration were directed to build a state of the art facility that would be entirely fireproof. When the work began in August 1908, it would be a common sight year round to see a steady stream of horse-drawn wagons coming up the hospital road from town, loaded with tons of bricks, stone, steel, terra cotta blocks, and cement, all manually handled by the hundreds of labourers who were involved in the project.

Construction of the massive hospital, including its own water and power supply, was completed in just under three years, with the official opening held on July 4, 1911. Throughout the 1920s additional facilities were erected throughout the grounds, including male and female wards and dining rooms, a laundry, staff and nurses’ residences, a recreation hall, root cellar and icehouse, and dorms and barns for the farm, which was located in the east corner of the sprawling 800-acre property. This would eventually require the organization of a volunteer fire department on the grounds that would be made up of off-duty staff members, who would be on call for fires and emergencies, as well as conducting safety procedures in all areas.

The initial firefighting equipment for the hospital brigade included a high-wheeled apparatus with a mounted pressure tank about the size of a domestic water heater. This cumbersome apparatus had to be hauled around by manpower, and needless to say, made for tough going through snowdrifts and mud. A similar wheeled vehicle that had to be pushed around by the lads if a call came in carried a few rolls of fire hose and had to be hooked up to the tank at the emergency site. Some years later, the PMH maintenance crews built a hose carrier that was mounted on an old car chassis, and this was used until the Fifties.

Before a fire chief was hired, internal fire drills were arranged and reviewed by the male nursing office staff who would periodically set off the alarm and the emergency evacuation routines were carefully monitored and timed. The importance of fire drills and safety procedures was acknowledged by the more than 1,500 patients and staff of the busy institution, and it was noted that evacuation process for a 100-patient unit would take approximately one minute. These drills proved effective, as on one cold night farm dormitory #2, housing about 60 patients burned to the ground. All were evacuated safely without injury. An earlier fire in 1926 also destroyed the new dairy barns and a silo on that same hospital farm.

Earlier fire crews were strictly volunteer or staff on duty who responded to the alarm if they were not directly involved in patient care. The chief engineer gave early direction of the hospital brigade, and then later fire prevention became an ongoing duty of the maintenance supervisor, who worked for the Department of Public Health. In the mid-Fifties the Provincial Mental Hospital Fire Department, under the direction of Chief Les Sitters, was reorganized with a new truck, new alarm system, a fully equipped fire hall, and a three man fire watch crew who were paid for being on call during their off-duty work hours. Fire department members were often called upon to patrol the grounds, and were also encouraged to attend firefighting courses in Edmonton, under the direction of the provincial Emergency Measures Organization. Some of the other chiefs in those earlier days included Dennis Birch, Frank Fertic, and Ray Domeji, with Dave Spink Jr. serving as the fire warden.

I vividly remember as a young lad living on the grounds, occasionally helping the fire brigade roll up those long hoses after washing the trucks or flooding the outdoor rink, and occasionally getting a ride and even activating the siren, but the biggest treat was getting to wear my dad’s big heavy fire helmet. On a few occasions the hospital brigade would be called do help assist with larger fires in elevators or buildings down town.

In the mid-1960s the fire protection of the hospital was taken over by the Town of Ponoka Volunteer Fire Department, and it still carries on in an excellent teamwork concept today at the Centennial Centre for Mental Health and Brain Injury. Some of the supervisors who have led this vital protection and maintenance program over the years have been Bob Schroeder, Elgin Grant, Len Thomson, Clayton Eley, and Doug Nichols. The same keen traditions of assuring the highest standards of safety and well being of the patients and staff of this first class psychiatric treatment facility will always be a number 1 priority.

Please plan now to attend the gala ‘100 Years of Caring’ Reunion Weekend from July 29 to 31 in Ponoka and at the Centennial Centre. Registration and information is available by calling 403-783-7777 or 403-783-7862.