“We still put the wet stuff on the red stuff’: Calgary fire chief marks milestone

CALGARY – Calgary Fire Chief Steve Dongworth will soon be leaving, taking with him a half century of memories of those he fought fires with — and of one who never made it back.

Dongworth, in an interview, said he’ll never forget that one particular morning in July 1992 when he stepped through the char of the 17th Avenue Inn where just hours earlier firefighter Morley James died.

“It was sobering for sure,” Dongworth said. “It was an eerie place knowing that one of our people died that night and ironically Morley had gone into the 17th Avenue Inn fire with a fellow I had trained with.”

James died looking for victims, taking the lead as he entered the burning building looking for anyone to rescue. He doused the flames until he reached the end of his hose line. He kept going, found another line, hooked it up and kept spraying until his air supply hit a critical low. He tried to get out, got disoriented in the smoke, was overcome by heat and the fumes and collapsed.

“People love their firefighters and it’s not about me,” he said. “It’s about the folks that show up.”

Dongworth is 69 and has been the city’s chief for the past 11 years after joining in 1992. 

Before that, he fought fires in the United Kingdom.

Last month, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas, at a Calgary Stampede event, officially recognized Dongworth’s five decades of service.

It was a career that only happened by happenstance.

He grew up in England in a military family and thought for the longest time that would be his path, too. 

His parents served in the Royal Navy in the Second World War. His great grandfather served in the First World War.

But as a teen, the future looked like it was in pigs. He worked in a pork abattoir, then a pig breeding centre, focusing on artificial insemination.

He wondered about the military, but the chance to see action was limited.

When he turned 19, a family friend suggested the fire department. He went down and the firefighters had him do a test on the spot.

“They made me carry one of the firefighters around the station and do another couple of tasks.”

He passed. They told him if he wanted a job, it was his.

By the 1990s, he was ready for a change not only of jobs, but of countries. He and his wife and two children came to Canada. He applied for jobs with both the Calgary and Edmonton fire departments and the Edmonton Police Service as well.

He settled on Calgary Fire.

Dongworth said he has never had a close call, but has vivid memories, including the haunting cases where children die.

“You hug your kids pretty tight when you get home. It troubles you, but you have to move beyond it,” he said.

“I don’t say that to mask anything. I think I found my own ways of dealing with that.”

Dongworth said his service is coming to a close. “I won’t be here at the end of next year,” he said. “If you do the math, I’m getting older and also it’s the right time to move aside.

“Organizations need new leadership.”

He said the one thing that has changed dramatically in his five decades on the job is the culture. It’s become more inclusive, he said, but more work is needed

“I think the fire service culture like the military culture, like the law enforcement culture, has been problematic at times in terms of perhaps not welcoming different kinds of folks into the organization whether it’s culture or gender,” he said.

“We’re on a journey still … we’re not where we want to be.”

Dongworth said technology — cellphones, computers and artificial intelligence – has also drastically changed the service, but said in the end it’s still about fire and water.

“Fundamentally,” he said, “we still put the wet stuff on the red stuff.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 16, 2026.