Friday, November 16, 2012
Cowichan News Leader Pictorial B1
Visit to fallen ÄreÄghters memorial helps local woman say goodbye to her brother
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any loved ones of our volunteer ¿re¿ghters live with trepidation. Every time there is an emergency, they fear their loved one may not return. It’s a feeling Brittany Brouwer knows well. In 2004, Brouwer’s brother, Dustin Engel had just graduated from Lake Cowichan Secondary and was a volunteer ¿reman with the Sahtlam Fire Department. On June 20, 2004, on his way to a call, Engel was killed in a horrible car accident. In 2005, Brouwer, her mother, grandmother, along with Dustin’s father, Àew to Ottawa to be part of the ceremony and to say goodbye. Seven years later, Brouwer witnessed the honouring of her brother a second time as the Fallen Fire¿ghters Foundation of Canada unveiled the Canadian Fire¿ghters Memorial in Ottawa on Sept. 10. The memorial consists of a wall with the names of all fallen ¿re¿ghters across the country (1,100 since 1848), and a bronze statue of a ¿re¿ghter. The bronze for the statue was donated by ¿re departments from across the country — including Cowichan — in the form of old bronze couplings. Brouwer says this was a different experience than when she Àew to Ottawa the last time. “Whereas last time it was more of a shock, where you’re upset and you’re angry and mad and sad. Where this time I Àew out I was older and we’d mourned and accepted that this had happened. And now it was more of an honour to go out.” But it was also a day of emotion and coming to really understand just how much ¿re¿ghters care about the members of their communities. “They were so amazing. They have their heart on their sleeves, they care so much about you. They don’t even know you, but when I went there the people that I met eight years ago still remembered my name. “The day before the ceremony they did an of¿cial reading of every single ¿reman’s name on the wall because they wanted everybody to know that they’re still included in the ceremony, which was amazing because, although the ceremony was about the six who died last year, it was really about everybody’s name on that wall.” Brouwer went with her
husband Darryl who grew up in Lake Cowichan and is now a volunteer ¿re¿ghter in Chemainus. Brouwer says that after her brother passed away, it took her years to come to terms with it enough to even get her own driver’s licence.
When her husband signed up to be a ¿re¿ghter, she says she had a hard time accepting it. “At ¿rst I was like, no way, you’re not doing this. I can’t go through this again. But then I had to have the perception
that accidents happen and that was an accident. My brother didn’t choose to die, nobody does.” Brouwer has kept the memory of her brother alive over the years on her own by participating in the Great Lake Walk
and raising $1,000 which she donated towards the creation of the Fire¿ghters Memorial, and by having a bench installed in his memory at Point Ideal last December. She adds this bench was important not only to her,
but to others who want to remember Dustin and did not feel comfortable going to the crash site each year. “I would have people telling me that they wanted to go to the crash site, but they would tell me that they can’t anymore,
it’s just too heartbreaking. It’s too sad. I would always go there, but it isn’t a very nice place to remember somebody. You want to remember somebody where they had a great time and it’s more of a happy place.”
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