While studying Mechanical Engineering after high school, Paul joined the local Fire Department as a Volunteer Civil Defence Firefighter. He served at this Fire Department, just South of Johannesburg in South Africa for eight years, during which time the area was under constant threat of terrorist attacks.
After immigrating to Canada Paul once again a volunteered as a firefighter. He attended completed his NFPA certification at the Fire School in Waverly Nova Scotia. He was subsequently promoted to Captain and received annual awards for being a Top Ten Responder. After transferring to Ottawa Paul joined a Volunteer Fire Station which is also a Water Rescue Unit, where he became their Medical Instructor. After a couple of years he started organizing Multiple Casualty Scenarios that eventually included units from Ottawa Paramedics and Ottawa Police. In 2012 Paul was awarded the Station 92 Fire Fighter of the Year Award and in 2013, received the District 9 Larry O’ Reilly award.
Paul has been teaching The EMR portion of the Pre Service Firefighter Education & Training program at Algonquin College since 2015. He also assists with training the new recruits The First Responder Level in the Rural Division of Ottawa Fire. In 2019 he became a Red Cross EMR Instructor Trainer, and is also International Trauma Life Support (Advanced) certified as well as a certified Swift Water Rescue Tech, Ice Rescue Tech and Swift Water Boat Rescue Tech.
Throughout his career as a volunteer and rural Firefighter, Paul has been trained by many firefighters, senior firefighters, officers and fire chiefs and looks forward to passing this knowledge on to new aspiring student Firefighters.
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