Fire Chief Kurt Gantner - Tagish, YT

[North_of_60]

Just saw this article posted on the CAFC Website and thought I would pass it along:

http://cafc.ca/en/2011/08/24/line-of-duty-death-of-fire-chief-kurt-gantner-tagish-volunteer-fire-department/

Rest in Peach Chief Gantner and condolences to his family and the members of the Tagish VFD and all of the Yukon Fire Service.

Stay Safe,

North of 60

[Frostfire]

Chief Gantner was a great leader and took his role as fire chief very seriously. He was a true friend and collegue and we will miss him dearly.

On a personal note, when Chief Gantner first began his role in Tagish, I has a son who had an allergic reaction while fishing. As kids are, he called me at work, could barley breathe and tried to give me as much info as possible, where he was and what was happening.

At that time we shared offices with EMS and as i was "freaking out" (ya what would you do being 50 miles away and knowing the seriousness of this and being a dad), they heard the conversation and emediately called out to Tagish for EMS assistance.

Well, the EMS out there had been called previously and were not available so a second call to the next community was sent out. Chief Gantner, who also served the comunity as a medical responder took it upon himself to get my son (he did not know who he was picking up), take him to his motel, and did what he could until EMS arrived and got him to the closest nursing station.

I am forever greatful to Kurt for his quick actions and am sure if he had not been able to provide my son with some treatment (keeping his airway open, most important keeping him calm as he was very scared) things would have been different.

My son as well understood how lucky he was and expressed his gratitude to Chief Gantner on many occaisions.

Anyway, just wanted to share this story, just one of many ways Chief Gantner kept his community safe, providing what ever he could to make things work, going out of his way to help others and asking for nothing in return. "Part of life is to help others", thats what he would say.

We had his memorial August 30th, well attended including some of his collegues from Germany where he first volunteered his services, RIP my good friend!