“He was an exceptional man,” said Gatineau historian and author Raymond Ouimet, who knew Mr. Michaud well when he was a municipal councilor of the former City of Hull. “He’s the one who got me interested in the subject of fires. Without him, I would not have written my book A city in flames (on the causes and repercussions of the Hull fires). He opened all the archives to me, gave me all the help he could.”
A proud Hull resident, Roland Michaud joined the fire brigade at station number two on rue Montcalm, in the former City of Hull, on May 9, 1958, at the age of 23. “The choice of barracks is not trivial,” continues Mr. Ouimet. His two great-uncles were both fire chiefs in Hull. It was in the family.”
He worked in the Department for over 30 years, first becoming a second lieutenant, then lieutenant, captain, assistant director. In 1977, he implemented the training program for firefighter recruits in the city of Hull.
Direction
He became director of the Fire Department in 1982, a position he held until 1989.
“I knew Mr. Michaud after my first election to the city of Hull in 1982,” says the former municipal councilor of the former City of Hull, Claude Bonhomme. “I don’t believe I spoke to him on a personal basis until his election as municipal councilor in November 1995. However, I remember Chief Michaud’s dynamic visits to the executive committee. I can still see him arriving in uniform, several satchels under his arm, looking serious and determined. Always well prepared and a good salesman, he rarely left the meeting without having obtained some loot.
Among his many achievements, during his mandate as director of the Service, Hull became the first city in Quebec where firefighters were recognized as professionals. “This is Mr. Michaud’s main legacy, his career at the Hull Fire Department,” believes Raymond Ouimet. He changed the vision that ordinary people could have of firefighters.”
He is also the instigator of the provincial committee responsible for recognizing acts of bravery and heroism for Quebec firefighters. “Fighting fires and serving your fellow citizens is what was most important. It’s hard to do more than what Roland Michaud did.”
Jump into municipal politics
He retired from the Fire Department in 1991 and traded his firefighter’s uniform for a councilor’s outfit.
He sat on the municipal council of the former city of Hull as councilor for the Montcalm district from 1995 to 2002. He chaired the last public meeting of the municipal council of the City of Hull in December 2001, just before the municipal merger. It was also during his election in 1995 that Claude Bonhomme learned to know the man behind the fire chief.
“I discovered a pleasant, affable businessman with an excellent sense of humor,” says Mr. Bonhomme. He also confessed to me, not without humor, that the satchels he carried during his pilgrimages to the executive committee did not contain anything related to his visits. They actually served as visual props to support his verbal presentations, in short to impress the gallery.
He then became for Claude Bonhomme an “invaluable friend and ally”.
Claude Bonhomme on the right, and his colleague from the Hull city council at the time, Roland Michaud, walk along the Portage promenade. (Archives Le Droit)
Volunteer work
Over the years, Mr. Michaud has also been involved as a volunteer in several community organizations, including as president of the Canadian Cancer Society, Hull section and on the boards of directors of the Centre hospitalier La Piéta de Hull and the Pierre-Janet hospital, to name a few.
Mr. Michaud was also, among other things, vice-president of the Canada-China Friendship Society, representing the Ottawa-Gatineau region. “It’s incredible what he’s done. There are lots of things like that,” added Raymond Ouimet.
“Roland had the city of Hull and Old Hull at heart and served them remarkably well as chief of the fire department and city councilor. He can rest in peace,” concluded Mr. Bonhomme.
