Answering the Call : A history of firefighting in the Town of Caledon

There has never been a time when the call for help has gone unanswered in the Town of Caledon — from the early days of bucket brigades to today’s state-of-the-art firefighting apparatus.

This is the history of one of Ontario’s (and Canada’s) largest firefighting services where the call is still answered by volunteers, with nine stations covering 274 square miles.

Answering the Call offers over 250 pages of absorbing history about firefighting in Caledon, not too far northwest of the present city of Toronto — along with a broad range of reassuring information about just how modern, and how extensive, the Town’s firefighting force has become.

What the book also does exceptionally well is tell a great human story, difficult to do in a publication with such a broad mandate, but Answering the Call manages the task superbly. From beginning to end, a reader never loses sight of the commitment, the sense of duty, the bravery and most of all the spirit that prevails among the individual firefighters of Caledon, and throughout the volunteer brigades to which they belong. (Review by Ken Weber).

You can be sitting down for dinner, or at a wedding and the call comes and you go because you want to serve, You’re there for the service of your community, and you’re very much a part of the community. (Bernard Moyle, former Palgrave volunteer firefighter).

Published by the Town of Caledon in association with eastendbooks

ISBN 1-896973-36-1, hardcover, 256 pages, 8 1/2 x 11, 16-page colour section, 200 b&w.

NOT IN PRINT. Used copies currently available through Amazon.ca.