He has been shot at in Bosnia, toured Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and forged connections with brother firefighters in Kabul and Kandahar – not a normal resume for a small-city firefighter.

A humanitarian at home and overseas, Langford fire Chief Bob Beckett was awarded the Chancellor’s Community Recognition award from Royal Roads University last week.

Beckett earned the honour based on years of organizing community aid events on the West Shore, but also for the ongoing project to train and equip firefighters in Afghanistan.

In his unassuming style, Beckett says he struggles accepting an award based on the work of fellow Langford firefighters, the Colwood Rotary and the City of Langford, among others.

“The list goes on and on,” he said. “It’s the reason I struggle with one individual receiving recognition for the work of many.”

Despite his modesty, Beckett has been helping the less fortunate since becoming a firefighter in 1974 in Waterloo, Ont. He taught the blind how to swim in Toronto and fundraised for incubators in Waterloo. In 1995 he volunteered as a firefighter-paramedic for the UN and ducked sniper fire for 30 days in war-ravaged Sarajevo.

“All my life have taken things on because of the philosophy of giving back to the community,” he said.

Beckett, 54 was fire chief in Maidstone Township in Ontario and in Terrace B.C. before taking the helm in Langford in 1996. After the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, he travelled to New York to pay his respects to lost firefighters and to the refugee camps on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

“During one of our visits we distributed toothbrushes and toothpaste to scores of children ...,” he told the audience at the fall convocation at RRU. “That gesture, one simple act of kindness spoke volumes about our collective community. It demonstrated to these poor souls that individuals and families half a world away truly cared about their plight.”

In 2004 Beckett and a Langford contingent travelled to Kabul following the arrival of firefighting gear donated from fire halls across Canada. They trained Afghan firefighters on the ground, many who fought fires without so much as a turnout jacket.

In 2006 Langford Fire Rescue brought over Kabul fire captain Atiqullah Jamshed to Canada for training and sent over $400,000 in gear this next year. This year the department brought over three firefighters from Afghanistan, including the chief from Kandahar who travelled across the war-torn country at great personal risk.

Those successes didn’t come easy. Shipping fire gear to Afghanistan via the Canadian Armed Forces was fraught with delays. Getting visa paperwork in order for the three Afghan firefighters was a bureaucratic nightmare. Beckett requested and received help from the prime minister’s office.

“It was extremely frustrating,” Beckett said. “But when thing are important it’s worth the extra effort. If you find one door closed you look for another door to open.”

Indeed, Langford Fire Rescue began a collaboration with the Fresno, Calf., fire department which has been working to send humanitarian relief via the U.S. military. Beckett and other Langford firefighters travelled to California in October.

“Fresno fire department has a similar program,” Beckett says. “Partnering with them increases our capacity to acquire equipment and our capacity to ship equipment. The American military has a lot more flights and opportunities we can access.”

If that wasn’t enough, Beckett is also eying a project with Colwood Rotary to ship equipment to an ailing public hospital in Kandahar.

“This community understands the core value of helping each other, of safety and of recognizing others don’t have these fundamental things,” Beckett said.

editor@goldstreamgazette.com