By DAVE KOSONIC

Next month will mark 66-years since Hurricane Hazel devastated our community leaving many residents dead or homeless.

That fatal day on October 15, 1954, took the lives of 81 people, including five valiant volunteer firemen who were on their way to help others, when their truck was washed away.

My late uncle Ross McConkey was one of many firemen, policemen and citizen volunteers who risked their lives attempting to rescue, and save, stranded people and later recover the remains of those who perished during this ruthless storm.

Some bodies were never located and that haunted Uncle Ross and the many rescuers for years.

My uncle was regarded as a valuable member of the Hurricane Hazel rescue and recovery teams by his peers because of his experiences gained in the nasty high seas.

At the age 18 in 1942, he joined the Royal Canadian Navy and was a crew member on a small warship, known as a Corvette, until 1945. During those years Ross learned how to read the treacherous North Atlantic waters and help rescue and recover sailors who had gone overboard.

When Ross returned home in 1945, he was hired by the City of Toronto as a fireman based at the Runnymede Rd., and Annette St., fire hall.  Firemen stationed there worked for about 10-days almost non-stop to deal with the aftermath of Hazel.

Ross returned to his Etobicoke home a couple of times briefly to check up on his family.

He would recall how he and fellow firemen attempted to save, and later recover, the five volunteer firemen who were swept into the raging Humber River.

They were rushing to an emergency call to aid the occupants of a stranded vehicle, when the Lambton-Kingsway volunteer firetruck was incapacitated by the powerful water of the hurricane. Despite a risky rescue attempt by Ross and other firemen, it was too late and the valiant volunteers were swept down the river.

Ross explained that in those days there were fewer fire halls and firemen. The personnel at his station relied heavily on the Lambton-Kingsway volunteers for back-up at emergencies.

He told family members that he and his colleagues were emotionally devastated by the deaths of their volunteer colleagues and never really recovered emotionally as a result.

Ross explained that firemen were expected to be real men and internalize all their thoughts and feelings.

During the years after the hurricane, Ross sometimes drove his sons, Paul and Brian, past locations where the storm had caused massive destruction. Ross would say things like: “That is where the houses and residents were before the storm took them away”.

Unfortunately, Uncle Ross made the decision to take his own life when he was 46-years-old on the verge of him being made a full Captain. Our family members were shocked and saddened but realized Ross may had seen too much death and destruction in his short life.