Firefighters mourn passing of Bacon

The Brotherhood of Firefighters and many of this community are saddened by the news of the passing of Chief Tony Bacon.

I met Tony Bacon several years ago and as two old retired fireman we instantly hit it off. I was amazed and humbled by this man. I spent 30 years of my life as a professional firefighter in a large metropolitan area. In that time I have known many chief officers.

In my entire career as a fireman I have never known anyone who knew more about every aspect of the fire service than Tony Bacon. He really did know it all.  The great thing was he was eager to pass on his knowledge to anyone who so desired it. Some in this community were intimidated by this. Too bad for them.

Even though he was “retired” he never really was. He kept in the game until the very end. His contributions to the ever changing Fire Service will not soon be forgotten.

He served as chief of Fisher River VFD and was training officer for both Cabinet View and Bull Lake VFD. Members of these departments suffer a great loss in his passing.

It is documented that even in his 70s and in great shape he was seen pulling hose and cutting line on wildfire assignments just last summer.

It was told to me that just last week he was in his wheelchair and writing a lesson plan for Bull Lake VFD.

During my career, to keep things in perspective, I always maintained that being a fireman was what I did, not who I was.

For Tony Bacon it was who he was.

The worldwide Brotherhood of Firefighters has suffered a great loss.

We will all miss his big smile and his enthusiasm for training

RIP Chief Tony Bacon.

- Jeff Nisbet, Luscher Dr.