 | Home page |  | Text size |  | E-mail this page |
Goodbye Mickey Beauchamp Longest-serving fire chief remembered as a good leader, a fair man and deeply committed to fire department
Simon Whitehouse
Northern News Services
Published Friday, August 2, 2013
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Yellowknife is mourning the death of a man who spent more than 30 years helping to build the city's emergency fire service.
Former fire chief Mickey Beauchamp stands with an old Yellowknife Fire Truck Number One in 2005. Beauchamp was the longest-serving fire chief in the city's history and died this week at his cottage near North Battleford, Sask. - NNSL file photo |
Mickey Beauchamp, who has the distinction of being the city's longest-serving fire chief, died Tuesday. He was 66.
Serving as Yellowknife's fire chief from January 1982 to the fall of 2006, Beauchamp oversaw a department that not only grew in size, but grew in terms of how affairs were managed from paper reports for responses to using electronic services.
Current Fire Chief Darcy Hernblad, who joined the service in 1985 as a volunteer firefighter, said Mickey was always a very fair man who provided good leadership and vision.
"He was hard when he had to be hard with you, but he was a good leader," he said. "He always had the ability to see into the future and where the fire department needed to be and where it needed to go. He worked very, very hard at making sure we got there with the newest and safest equipment and the new technology that dealt with fires."
Historically, Hernblad said Beauchamp was one of the few firefighters who served in all three fire halls in the city's history which included the former location at the current Salvation Army, where the Bailey House is currently situated, and at the one presently located on Franklin Avenue and Old Airport Road.
Born on Dec. 10, 1946 in Edmonton, Beauchamp travelled with his family shortly after he was born as the second eldest in a family of eight. His father, Peter Sr., who was a heavy duty operator with Frenchy's Transport, moved North for work shortly after Beauchamp was born.
Beauchamp and his older brother Peter Jr. were remembered this week as being quite close. They both attended the same public school and served in the Yellowknife Fire Division together.
"He was a long, long serving and highly respected fire chief," said former Mayor Gord Van Tighem.
"One thing that stood out for me was from when they used to have volunteer on-call firefighter luncheons. One of the guys there was talking about when he first started and his dad took him aside and said if you have to go to a fire, make sure you get next to one of the Beauchamp brothers and you will be safe."
The City of Yellowknife issued a press release Wednesday about Beauchamp's death, recalling how he had first entered the department in 1973 as a volunteer firefighter before he was hired full-time and later named lieutenant in 1979. In 1982, he was named fire chief.
Beauchamp was also well-known as a long time curler, perhaps most proudly having travelled with his brother Peter, Steve Moss, and Jerry May to Victoria for the National Fire Fighters Curlers Association in 1984. The team won a bronze medal that year.
Hernblad recalled many big fires Beauchamp oversaw over the years, including one at Giant Mine where shooting and bowling ranges were lost. Another was the Colomac Mine fire when a pumper was loaded into a C-130 transport aircraft to help put it out.
Beauchamp's career ended on a tough note when a fire at the Yellowknife's Home Building Centre killed two fire fighters, Lt. Cyril Fyfe and Kevin Olson, in March 2005.
"It was very, very hard on Mickey because all of the firefighters at the Yellowknife Fire Department were like his family," said Hernblad. "I think it was hard on his health and one of the significant turning points for him. It hurt him so bad that his health was never the same after that."
Beauchamp was at his family cabin in North Battleford, Sask., when he was found dead this week.
"As far as I know, they had a cottage and that is where he was Monday and his daughter-in-law called Tuesday morning and there was no answer," said his sister-in-law Mary. "They went to see if he ran into a problem and that is when she found him."
Beauchamp's remains have been cremated and a service is expected in Yellowknife at a date sometime between now and the end of August, said Mary.
Beauchamp is survived by his wife Margaret-Ann (Cochrane) of North Battleford. The two were married in the early 1970s and later had sons Kendall, Michael and Jordan as well as a late daughter Becky, who died in 1978 shortly after she was born.
Beauchamp is also remembered by brother Peter, sister Suzanne of La Ronge, sister Karen of Edmonton, sister Joanne of Edmonton, brother Kerry of Campbell River, and half-brother Chucker Dewar of Yellowknife.
| 
