London deputy fire chief Dave Lazenby left behind a big job in Britain — and thugs who made firefighting dangerous
London deputy fire chief Dave Lazenby shows a British firefighter’s helmet, similar to the one he used to wear in England. Chip Martin/The London Free Press
Dave Lazenby is the first to admit his life in recent years has been a roller-coaster ride.
At age 43, London’s deputy fire chief has experienced the highs and lows of firefighting.
In his native East Yorkshire, in northern England, he and fellow fire services staff were often attacked in the 1990s by thugs and disengaged young troublemakers in depressed areas.
They threw rocks, booby-trapped handrails with syringes taped on them and dropped TVs onto the heads of first-responders entering apartment buildings. In one year alone, 2,000 such incidents were reported in England.
That was the low.
Since early 2010, he’s been a deputy chief in London, overseeing about 20 staff in training, communications and emergency management.
But this isn’t the high.
That came when he named to an elite group of British officials assembled to craft a national emergency response program after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It was akin to the Federal Emergency Measures Administration in the U.S.
“Life was good,” he muses.
But he chucked it all for a new start in Canada because of a red-haired girl, now 11 — his daughter and only child, Emma.
“It’s been the right decision from a family perspective,” Lazenby said. “I feel kind of blessed to get this kind of opportunity.”
He’s so glad the hooligans from depressed areas in his homeland are far behind, unable to influence Emma with their “complete disregard for values.”
Lazenby himself left school early and became an accountant in East Yorkshire, but had become restless by the time he met and married Wendy.
“I began to think about what I wanted to do for the rest of my life,” he recalls. He enjoyed adrenalin rushes from sports and helping people, and he found little of that pushing a pencil.
He’d worked with children with cerebral palsy and joined 100 young people on a three-month expedition to Chile. Lazenby had started taking courses in psychology and found that fascinating.
The young man became a reservist with the commando squadron of the Royal Marines. He came within a whisker of earning his prestigous green beret when his bid for a post with the fire brigade paid off.
He signed on with the Humberside Fire Brigade, a force of 1,000 full- and part-time firefighters spanning three counties.
The pay was poor, but Lazenby said he thoroughly enjoyed the work as a frontliner, then entering the training division where he rose to a rank equivalent to that of a plattoon chief. A national strike by firefighters in 2002-03 came in response to demands to reduce costs and reduce risks.
“It was bizarre,” he says, adding “I didn’t join for this.” But if life was at stake, firefighters would drop their picket signs and answer alarms.
Back on the job, after significant pay raises helped to end the strike, Lazenby took his penchant for challenge to the desert.
In 2001, he competed in the 240-km Sahara Desert ultra-marathon, and the next year in the 210-km Death Valley ultra-marathon.
“I like a challenge,” he explains. He finished both.
But when Emma was born in 2002, he decided he had to limit his challenges to those of a family man.
“I didn’t like what I saw in England,” among young troublemakers.
Lazenby had been seconded to the newly-formed Fire and Rescue National Resilience Team, one of 24 responders given $500 million and a mandate to develop a co-ordinated response to terrorism threats including nuclear, biological and chemical.
Job satisfaction was high, but concern for family and future remained.
He and Wendy soon began thinking the solution was to emigrate. She had distant family in Vancouver and Brantford, so Canada was the preferred destination.
After years of waiting, the Lazenbys received their permanent resident card in late 2008 and the job hunt began.
Lazenby saw an opening for deputy chief in London and for a firefighter recruit in Brantford. He was interviewed for both, but the Brantford job was offered first.
He had to rush to join a class of latest reruits, and after months of training became a fifth-class firefighter. The loss of rank and of pay was significant, but he felt worth it to establish a beach-head in a new land.
In early 2010 he accepted the London job on a contract, soon converted into a full-time job.
Lazenby said he’s had to adjust, but thinks having gone through reorganization and a drive to fire prevention in England, he is in a good position.
“I’ve seen the future,” he says of the move to save money and lives by a strong focus on fire prevention.
“We’re in the middle of something really exciting here,” he says.
And Emma? She’s fitting in nicely, thank you.
And dad concedes there’s only one thing she’s missing from East Yorkshire: Her accent.
DEPUTY CHIEF LAZENBY
— Accountant in native East Yorkshire.
— Front-line firefighter, then training officer with East Yorkshire fire brigade.
— Member of national team appointed by British government to produce a emergency response plan for terrorist acts.
— Former reservist in commando squadron of Royal Engineers
— Ran ultra-marathons in the Sahara and Death Valley deserts.
— Started in Canada as a fifth-class firefighter in Brantford in 2009.
— Deputy London fire chief since 2010.
