SUNDAY READS: Vaughan captain Len Ridding retires after three decades fighting fires

'He earned his stripes for sure' platoon chief Brian Culp

Yorkreigon.com
Jan. 21, 2018
By Simone Jospeh

His team - Vaughan's fire and rescue service C - was called to a fire at a 14,000 square-foot house in the Weston and Teston Roads area.

Water tankers from Richmond Hill Fire, King City and Nobleton were called in.

Ridding was outside of the house at 9 p.m. when a mayday call came over the radio.

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Before fighting fires, Ridding was surrounded by water - first as a teenaged lifeguard in Toronto and later as a search and rescue scuba diver for Toronto Harbour Police. Ridding and his colleagues were expected to become police officers when the harbour police joined forces with the Metropolitan Toronto Police in the 1980s. At the time, Ridding doubted this career was right for him.

Ridding was a swimmer on Canada's national swim team. One of his coaches was Bob Dyak, a North York firefighter who urged him to switch over to firefighting. Ridding applied to fire departments across the GTA and was accepted into North York, Scarborough and Vaughan. Dyak encouraged him to accept the Vaughan offer since this was a smaller department where he could rapidly advance.

Ridding had already come into contact with fires and firefighters while submerged in the world of search and rescue. He remembers a fire at Olympic Island (one of the Toronto Islands) when somewhere between 60 and 80 boats caught fire. Toronto fire didn't have enough equipment and the marine unit had a fire pump so Ridding gave this pump to a Toronto firefighter. Ridding was about 19. He remembers sitting on the sidelines, watching as the important work was being done.

"These guys were doing exciting work. I wanted to be them ... I thought that's a cool job - fighting fire on Olympic Island."

He remembers feeling a "yearning" for firefighting. In the end, he opted not to become a Toronto police officer.

"I had a taste of it and I said I'm going to work for the fire department."

The City of Vaughan's fire department hired Ridding in August 1987, the same month Ben Johnson set a world record by running 100 metres in 9.83 seconds and Michael Jackson's Bad video premiered on CBS TV.

At Vaughan's fire department, Ridding became known for being very social, said platoon chief Brian Culp, who worked with him for 21 years. A typical carbon monoxide call, where someone calls in because the detector went off, would take most firefighters 10 to 15 minutes to go in and come out, but not Ridding.

Ridding would go to calls and spend time speaking to people on scene. Sometimes, he would speak to people for so long it would irk his colleagues, Culp said. "It used to drive some of the guys nuts."

"He went on and on. He loved to talk to people. It was good for public relations," Culp said. "Customers always enjoyed interaction with him. He's good at communicating. He brings it down, explains it all to them. "

Ridding would go back after a shift and give a person a ride to the doctor.

"The kind of guy he was, he'd go above and beyond," Culp said.

Ridding also became known for telling funny stories, Culp said. Many were from his days with the harbour police. The tales made you realize how much living Ridding had crammed into his lifetime.

"You would almost think he was 75 years old with all the things he has done."

Ridding was ultrareliable.

"He's one of those guys you don't have to worry about. He earned his stripes for sure," Culp said. "He was a good, hard worker. He'd help anybody. He is very compassionate. You could always count on him at a fire."

Ridding retired as captain of Vaughan's fire department on Dec. 26, 2017.

He had worked with Vaughan's fire department for so many years that he used 110 work-related computer passwords, Ridding said.

The 52-year-old Whitby resident anticipates missing his work inside and outside of the station.

"It's a centre of my life. I'm not going to be driving there every day … It's the people I met in my career I'm afraid of missing."

But there is one part of Ridding's job he knows he won't miss.

To illustrate this, he talks about his last day of work. He remembers waking at 5 a.m. Watching the sun rise, he thought: It is going to be a great day.

That day, it was mostly medical calls. On his way home, Ridding stopped to have a meal with colleagues. They shared laughs and shook hands at a Vaughan diner. He drove over to Hwy. 404 and noticed a traffic jam to his right. He saw a blanket draped over a car and knew what this meant.

"I definitely won't miss that," Ridding said. "I won't miss going to calls like that."

Ridding doesn't like revisiting any of the traumatic events from his years on the job.

"You realize the weight of that builds up," he said. "We deal with a lot of crap. We put that in places many don't want to visit."

The mayday call on Feb. 26, 2001 at 220 Green Brooke Dr. was one of the most memorable calls from his three decades with the fire service.

Ridding, along with fellow firefighters, received accolades from the Woodbridge Rotary Club for their work during this mayday call.

His team had been called to a fire at a 14,000 square-foot house in the Weston and Teston Roads area.

The roof of the house collapsed, trapping three firefighters.

"It was the most adrenalin filled moment of my life," Ridding said.

The firefighters were helped to safety through a window. The house was completely destroyed in the fire which was called accidental. The fire caused $1.5 million in damage to the building.

Ridding called it "the most significant call of my career". He didn't sleep for two days afterwards.

Ridding also had an adrenalin-charged moment when he rescued a neighbour while off-duty.

Ridding was at his Whitby home on April 15, 2008, when he noticed smoke billowing from his neighbour's house at 23 Dymond Dr., in the Garrard and Rossland Road area. His neighbour was in the basement which had filled with smoke.

Ridding called 911 and went over with his fire extinguisher, crawling beneath a blanket of smoke to help.

Whitby fire officials praised Ridding at the time, saying he "put his life on the line" to help his neighbour.

Culp was not surprised that Ridding helped out his neighbour.

"He would do that for sure. He is very caring, giving. He would give you the shirt off his back."

Overall, Ridding excelled at his job, he said.

"He was a good firefighter and captain and was aggressive going into fires. He has a good work ethic. Right until his last day, he was running calls. That never changed, which is amazing," he said. "He didn't mind being up all night even at the end."