TAHMIZIAN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2007-11-16 published
Calm, deliberate Toronto fire captain won citation for rescue
operations
Amid the noise and chaos of battling a blaze, his was the steady
voice other firefighters heard through the black and blinding
smoke. In the end, his career likely cost him his life
By Matthew
TREVISAN,
Special to The Globe and Mail, Page S8
By the time they found the woman unconscious on a couch, the
apartment fire had already ventilated itself, shooting flames
out a back room and into the summer night. Firefighter John
CHAPPELLE
calmly scooped her into his arms and carried her out of the building.
For the captain of Toronto Fire Station 443, it was just another
day on the job.
For 27 years, he attended fires, medical emergencies and hazardous-material
accidents in the same evenhanded and methodical manner. Above
the cacophony of fire alarms and smashing glass, his was always
the steady voice other firefighters heard while crawling on their
hands and knees through black, blinding smoke.
"Some people's voices would have been up two or three octaves,"
said John Getty, who joined Mr.
CHAPPELLE's platoon in 2000.
"His never did. His never went up and never went down… He wasn't
upset, he wasn't frustrated. He was just doing what we do."
Like the time in September, 2003, when he directed the rescue
of a truck driver on Highway 27 in the Toronto area. The driver
had been at the wheel of a 16-metre trailer truck when a car
ahead of him spun in slippery conditions. He swerved to avoid
the smaller vehicle and crashed over a concrete wall. The truck
plunged 20 metres onto railway tracks north of Pearson International
Airport, trapping the driver in the crumpled wreckage.
Victim Survived
Mr. CHAPPELLE and his crew were in one of several emergency vehicles
called to extricate the man. Using a rope line, they ferried
equipment from the highway down to the wreck. The smell of diesel
fuel filled the air as they trudged though thick mud, dense shrub
and broken glass, yet he and his squad never wavered. The man
survived, and Mr.
CHAPPELLE's platoon later received a citation
from the Toronto Fire Services.
John CHAPPELLE grew up in Toronto on Balliol Street, near the
Davisville subway station. His father, Art, worked for the Ontario
government designing the layout of many provincial parks, including
Sibbald Point near Jackson's Point on the shores of Lake Simcoe.
His mother Alice
(NELSON) stayed home to look after John, the
oldest, his sister Diane and his brother Ken.
"All of his life, he was a protector," said his sister, Diane
TAHMIZIAN. "
Right from the start, I remember I was in kindergarten
and there were always bullies in the neighbourhood. He always
made sure I wasn't bothered."
With only two years separating them, Mr.
CHAPPELLE and his sister
shared childhood summers at a cottage in the Bobcaygeon area,
northeast of the city, where they canoed and launched bullfrogs
into the water with their paddles. They stayed up late reading
comics and, when they were old enough, went to the Canadian National
Exhibition.
Mr. CHAPPELLE attended Northern Secondary School on Mount Pleasant
Road, where he played football, rugby and basketball while nursing
a passion for the arts. He played bass guitar, acted in a school
musical and sang in the choir. For pocket money, he moonlighted
as a disc jockey.
"At the end of Grade 9, I wanted to try out for cheerleading
for Grade 10. And the only thing that was holding me back was
I just couldn't nail a cartwheel," Diane said. "And so John was
asking me, 'What's the problem? Why are you so upset about the
tryouts? You'll do great. You'll be fine. I'm sure you're going
to make the team.' "
With that, her brother the jock cartwheeled gracefully in front
of her. Over the next few weeks, he continued to motivate her
and, sure enough, she made the team.
Restaurant Manager
Mr. CHAPPELLE married young, right out of high school, and lived
next door to his parents with his wife, Marian
CUNNINGHAM, and
their daughter Alyson. Throughout the 1970s, he worked a variety
of jobs from meat-shop manager to a McDonald's restaurant manager.
Toward the end of the decade, he was still unclear about what
he wanted to do for a career - except that he wanted it to be
stable. When a family friend convinced him to apply to be a firefighter,
he agreed to give it a shot, never one to turn down an opportunity
for something new.
In 1980, he was hired by the Etobicoke Fire Department and started
at a quiet station on Renforth Drive. In the early days, he was
an eager rookie who felt frustrated that he rarely had a chance
to fight a serious blaze. He eventually got many chances to demonstrate
his willingness and professionalism.
In April, 1997, ammonia pipes burst at a refrigeration plant
on Shorncliffe Avenue, causing one of the largest chemical fires
in Etobicoke's history. For more than six hours, firefighters
from several Etobicoke stations fought the blaze. From a point
high above the fire, he fought the flames with a high-volume
nozzle directed downward from an extendable ladder and platform.
The drains became clogged by debris, and there was so much water
that the firefighters worked in a knee-deep flood, Mr. Getty
said.
In 1998, the Etobicoke Fire Department was amalgamated to become
part of the Toronto Fire Services, and he applied for a position
as a captain. By then, his first marriage had ended and he was
happily remarried to Jayne
WOODS, an art restorer he had met
at a Toronto curling club. They had eloped to Jamaica in 1991
after finding a surprising amount in common: She was intrigued
that a brawny firefighter with a mustache and bushy eyebrows
would have an interest in art history. By that time, he had racked
up 11 credits in four years studying part-time at York University.
After serving as an acting captain at the East Mall Station,
Mr. CHAPPELLE was made captain at Station 443 on Islington Avenue.
In July, 2002, he was called to an apartment fire on Dixon Road.
Using a side door, he and firefighter Jim
LAMONT entered the
building, a two-story complex containing four units. The fire
raged in a rear apartment, blasting out windows and enveloping
the building in thick smoke.
After searching the first floor, they went upstairs and entered
one of the apartments. There, they found a middle-aged woman
unconscious and lying on a couch. She was carried out and taken
to the hospital, still unconscious, and that was the last they
saw of her. Like many people rescued by firefighters, no one
in Mr. CHAPPELLE's crew ever learned what became of her.
Curling Champ
Outside of work, Mr.
CHAPPELLE enjoyed the outdoors. There were
canoe expeditions, golf games, ski trips to Europe - and curling.
In 2005, he was a member of a rink that won the Ontario Firefighters
Curling Championship.
In late August, 2006, he suddenly complained that he was unable
see stop signs when driving. He was diagnosed with glioblastoma,
an inoperable brain cancer considered by Ontario's Workplace
Safety and Insurance Act to be a work-related disease.
John Arthur
CHAPPELLE was born in Toronto on February 3, 1954.
He died of brain cancer in Orangeville, Ontario, on September 5,
2007. He was 53. He is survived by his wife, Jayne
WOODS, and
Alyson, his daughter from his previous marriage. He is also survived
by father Art, sister Diane and brother Ken. He is predeceased
by his mother, Alice, who died in 2005. About 350 uniformed firefighters
from across Ontario attended his funeral.
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