Curtis Mousseau
Curtis Mousseau is the first full-time fire chief of Didsbury, having been a member of the Didsbury Fire Department since November of 2005. Over the course of his time there, he has served as a firefighter, captain, training officer, deputy chief, and volunteer chief before finally reaching his current position. Prior to his full-time involvement with the Fire Department, he was an environmental consultant. He enjoys golfing and curling in his spare time.
What led to your interest in environmental reclamation and firefighting?
“Well, any male child my age wanted to be a fighter pilot or an archeologist, because we grew up on Top Gun and Indiana Jones. For a while there I kicked around with the idea of becoming an architect, but I just happened to fall into environmental consulting… I read a course catalogue, and I saw the program and went, ‘Hmm, sounds interesting.’ It's science, you're outdoors.”
“I liked the idea of the fact that we were restoring and putting stuff back from what it was. I guess that gave me some satisfaction there. It's kind of cool to come in after, put it together, and if we do our job right, you can't tell there was ever a well site there or whatever. So that part appealed to me, and then the fire stuff just kind of fell into my lap when I joined 20 years ago.”
What impact did your dad, Rick, have on your career and life journey?
“I don't know if there is one defining moment that sparked my passion; I just grew up in it. My dad was on the fire department, right, from, oh, shoot, I was five or six when he joined, so I just grew up in it throughout all my formative years. And then when I moved back to town after university, after my four years away, you know, after a couple years, I just decided it’d be cool. I knew everybody, and [I] wanted to give back to the community, all that stuff. So, there was no single defining moment that was like ‘I'm gonna be a firefighter.’ It was just kind of something to give back when I moved back to town.”
“If you had told me then, ‘Oh, you're gonna be the first full-time fire chief in the town, I would have laughed.’ I’m doing environmental consulting, why would I leave, right? But as I got older, it just was, you know, maybe it's not that bad. I took the mindset that somebody has to do the job. I think I have the tools to do it. Time will tell.
And that's how I just moved my way up the ranks, I guess. It's like, well, somebody's got to do it, and some of the skills I got in environmental consulting with the overall program management, I think that will serve me well.”
What piece of advice would you give to others in the community?
“For the younger generation, don't discount small towns. Like, yes, the cities have all the services, you can—10 o'clock at night—you can run down somewhere and grab something, but there’s something to be said for a quieter and more close knit community where you actually know your neighbours.”
