Some know him as Legal’s chief administrative officer. Others know him as a dedicated Sturgeon County firefighter.
But only a select few know Robert Proulx as that guy who got chased by a cow.
Proulx said he and the Legal fire department were called to a toppled cattle hauler near Highway 651 and Lily Lake Road about 20 years ago. A farmer was using a cattle prod to nudge the stunned cows out of the hauler when one of them suddenly charged out. Proulx was directly in its path.
“I tried to get out of the way, but the cow was basically chasing me,” Proulx recalled.
Running along a ditch with the cow in pursuit, Proulx tripped, and expected to be tossed or trampled. Instead, the cow took out its frustrations on a nearby utility box and fled.
“We never did find it,” Proulx said of the cow.
“The firefighters still chuckle about it.”
Proulx was one of 20 firefighters honoured Sept. 8 at the Protective Services Headquarters during the Sturgeon County emergency services department’s long-term service awards ceremony. It was the first such ceremony since 2019 — awards for the last two years were presented at individual fire halls due to the pandemic.
Proulx received a large statue of a firefighter for his 40 years as firefighter. He joins a small but growing number of people who have fought fires for 40-plus years in the county.
Many of these super-veterans grew up in the county and joined the fire department to give back to their community, said Sturgeon County Fire Chief Pat Mahoney.
“You can only imagine what Robert has seen over his 40 years and the amount of experience he has. To have people like him still in the organization able to pass that experience and knowledge to young people coming in is invaluable.”
Lifelong public service
Proulx said he joined Legal’s fire department when he was about 17 shortly after he moved into the community in 1981.
“I had a couple of buddies who were on the fire department,” he said, and they convinced him it would be exciting to join up.
Legal was still a village with dirt roads at the time, Proulx said. Firefighters didn’t get much for protection back then besides boots, a helmet, and a jacket, but they could still ride on the back of the fire truck.
Back then, instead of calling 911, Proulx said residents would call a specific number to report a fire. That number would ring six phones in town which were hooked to a seventh phone at the fire hall. A volunteer would answer one of the phones, take down the fire’s details, and push their phone’s lone button to trigger the siren at the town office and summon everyone to the fire hall. Once there, firefighters would pick up the seventh phone and talk to the button-pusher to learn about the fire.
Proulx said firefighters like him would get to run out of class to the fire hall whenever the siren went off, sometimes to the confusion of their teachers. The town still tests the siren every year and uses it for emergencies.
Professionally, Proulx said he started working for what is now the Town of Legal as a summer student in around 1982 and worked his way up to the CAO position in 2011.
Proulx said he recalls many stand-out moments from his firefighting career, including protecting a home from a fast-moving blaze in Juniper Hills and former fire chief Raoul St. Jean’s annual corn roasts.
Proulx said he doesn’t go out on calls as often now due to his day job. His son Tyler now works for the Sturgeon County fire department.
Proulx said he has stuck with firefighting for all these years because he enjoyed helping others and giving back to the community. He hopes to keep fighting fires for a few more years yet.
Proulx thanked his family for all their support.
