Berny Stansa moves up from Deputy Fire Chief in Timmins to Chief on November 1st, when Tom Laughren retires.
Counting Laughren and former chief Mike Pintar, Stansa is the third of the last four fire chiefs to be Schumacher boys.
“It’s almost like that’s a prerequisite, eh?” he quips.
At 62, Stansa has been a firefighter for half his life, starting as a Schumacher volunteer in 1991, and becoming fulltime in ’97.
”It’s going to be challenging because it’s a new position for me. Admittedly, I’m not going to be here very long. Several years at the most.”
Stansa says his experience in the training and fire prevention divisions will serve him well as chief.
“I learned quite a bit from Chief Laughren, as well as former Chief Pintar, former Chief Normand Beauchamp. They had a lot of strengths, hopefully I’m going to pick up on those.”