No capes. No form-fitting leotards. And no crime-fighting catchphrases.
But despite the lack of cliche trappings, Richmond honoured a room full of its very own superheroes last week during the 12th Annual 911 Awards at the River Rock Show Theatre.
Keynote speaker at the event Peter German, Regional Deputy Commissioner Pacific Region for Correctional Service Canada, and former RCMP Deputy Commissioner for Western and Northern Canada, summed up the importance of honouring the work emergency and first responders undertake daily.
"No community could exist without those people who keep us safe at work and at home," said German who is a longtime Richmond resident. "It's you, the nominees and award winners we celebrate tonight. Thank you for what you do on a daily basis. Thank you for allowing us to enjoy the lives that we lead."
German called the concept of the 911 Awards "amazing."
"A lot of communities will recognize firefighters, or their police, different emergency service workers, but I don't know of any community other than Richmond which recognizes everyone in the 911 community who works within the city," German said. "My hat is off to the (Richmond) chamber of commerce for doing this."
German served as the RCMP's commissioner in the Lower Mainland from 2007 to 2011, a period when the region experienced a spate of gangland warfare that resulted in numerous killings as rival groups battled for turf.
"The media was reporting almost nightly incidents, and the public was understandably aware," said German.
But what hit home for him, when it came to the coordinated efforts of those who respond to emergencies, was an incident in October 2007 when a plane crashed into an apartment tower in central Richmond.
Hearing the initial report and not much more on his way home to Richmond from his Surrey office, German said he immediately thought the worst.
When he arrived at the scene outside the building on Saba Road, where emergency service personnel from Richmond, Delta and Vancouver had gathered, he discovered the plane was a small one and that the only loss of life was that of the pilot.
The incident was well under control when an ambulance supervisor approached German and informed him there was another large incident taking place in Surrey where a suspected meth lab in an apartment high rise had claimed the lives of several people.
"I said to him, 'You gotta be kidding?' So, I made my way back to Surrey," German said, adding that when fire crews entered the apartment in Surrey, six people were found dead and the home was not a meth lab.
"That was the night of the Surrey Six murders, the largest mass murder in recent British Columbia history."
German said that was also, in his mind, the night the tables turned on the gang violence.
Throughout the intervening years, German said he had no doubt the Lower Mainland's communities remained some of the safest anywhere, "in part because we have some
of the finest public servants anywhere protecting us," he said, adding the various branches work well together, noting what he considered the four reasons why they excel.
"First and foremost, you are professionals," he said.
"Whether you are a firefighter, a coast guard person, a police officer, ambulance attendant or belong to another occupational group. Secondly, first responders are willing to go the extra mile.
"You aren't slackers. You don't count the minutes until your shift is over," he said. "You're the professionals who give a damn."
Third was the balance first responders manage to achieve in their lives.
"None of us can live our jobs 24/7," German said. "Our cell phones and pagers may always be on, but we must have other interests to be a well-rounded person."
And lastly, was the quality of seizing an opportunity in an emergency situation.
"It's those heroes who do what all of our senses tell us not to do," German said. "It's the coast guard member who ventures out into a violent sea when mariners are trying to make it to shore. It's the emergency health worker who treats an AIDS-infected person bleeding from track marks on their arms. It's the police officer who is running into the high school that is under attack, when the students are running out."
All of those actions are counter-intuitive, German said, posing the rhetorical question why people do these kind of things.
"They do so because they care," he said. "They don't have to wait to make a difference. Every day offers the opportunity to make a contribution to your fellow citizens.
"Generosity and kindness are the qualities of emergency workers. They work with grace and courage day in and day out."
German said he congratulated the nominees present for their professionalism, going the extra mile, for being a complete person, and seizing the opportunity when it presented itself.
"You are Richmond's heroes, and we all applaud you," he said.
