From left: Dave Roy, District Chief, Brucefield Station; Patrick Armstrong, founder of Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund; and Eunice and Jim Aikenhead.
HEATHER BOA Bullet News BRUCEFIELD – Jim and Eunice Aikenhead watched as a defibrillator was donated to the Brucefield Fire Department last night in memory of their son, Ken Aikenhead, a volunteer fire fighter who died as a result of an accident while responding to a brush fire in 1987.
“It means a whole lot to us. [The defibrillator] is here for everybody if there’s a problem,” Eunice said, as the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund made its 23rd donation in memory of police, fire, paramedic and military personnel who have died in the line of duty.
She and Jim have stayed in touch with the fire brigade, attending firemen’s breakfast and getting news through friends and relatives who have volunteered over the years. In a photo taken in 1986 that hangs on the wall in the fire station, Eunice can point out her son, a brother-in-law and the names of two sons of her good friends.
Ken died May 13, 1987 when the tanker truck he was driving caught the soft shoulder of a sideroad on the Vanastra Road and rolled into the ditch. He was 25.
Twelve years later, Huron County lost its second volunteer firefighter in 1999 when Doug Cantelon suffered a heart attack while driving Pumper 3 from the Clinton Fire Department. He was 58, and scheduled to be honoured later that day for 25 years of volunteer fire fighting. Earlier this year, the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund donated a defibrillator in his honour to the Central Huron Fire Department.
Earlier this week, the fund donated a defibrillator to the Emergency Services Training Centre in Blyth in memory of Dave Mounsey, in whose honour the fund was established.
The fund was created to carry on Huron OPP Const. Mounsey’s commitment to community, after Mounsey died as a result of a motor vehicle accident while on duty in 2006. He and his partner, Brenda Carey, raised enough money in competitive runs to purchase a defibrillator for the Blyth fire department, where he volunteered. He died before the defibrillator was donated.
“We wanted to carry on legacy of dedication to community,” said Patrick Armstrong, who founded the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund.
Huron County has lost these two firefighters, along with police officers Mounsey, Bruce Crew and Vu Pham, and Corp. Matt Dinning of the Canadian Forces.
