Michel Rossignol’s firefighting family
By Nancy Miller Chenier
Having lived on both sides of the King Edward divide, Michel Rossignol has widespread knowledge of Lowertown. He started his life on St. Patrick Street – near Parent, where the Théâtre Français on Dalhousie and Gelman’s candy store at the corner of Murray evoke fond memories. At one point, his parents lived on Guigues Street, across from his paternal grandmother and next door to his aunt. In 1978, the family moved to the Watergate Apartments on Wurtemburg Street, where Michel now lives.
Michel recounts the oft-told family story of his paternal grandfather, Eugène Rossignol, who was a firefighter with the City of Ottawa. His fire station was No.5, located at the corner of King Edward Avenue and Bruyère Street. When this station ceased operations in the 1950s, it continued life as a laboratory, and later a community centre. It is currently a residential building still carrying the “Fire Station No. 5” lettering on a pediment at the Bruyère façade.
Eugène was one of the men battling the blaze on Parliament Hill in 1916, working for hours to control and douse the fire that started in the late evening of February 3rd and was still smouldering the next day. While it severely damaged the centre block, the fire left the Library virtually intact.
Michel’s grandmother remembered the night well and told her children and grandchildren about her husband’s return home after fighting the fire. “The story my grandmother used to tell was that when he came back from Parliament Hill, he took off his overcoat, and it was so encrusted in ice that she put it in the bathtub, and it took hours for it to melt. There was so much ice, it stood up by itself” Michel recalls.
Michel’s father, Emile Rossignol, was a career civil servant. After serving in the air force for five years during the Second World War, he worked at the Department of Veteran’s Affairs until his retirement. Michel’s mother, the former Antoinette Dubé, was employed in various jobs over the years: nurse’s aide, saleswoman at Caplan’s and Freiman’s, and finally cashier at the Tulip Room Restaurant at Freiman’s, later The Bay.
Emile and his siblings were fascinated by fires. They would run after the fire trucks to see the blazes, and before their father’s death, they often watched Eugène as he rushed into burning buildings.
This family relationship with the fire department continued after Eugène Rossignol’s death in 1931, at the age of only 43 years. Michel remembers one firefighter in particular who kept in touch with the family: Phil Larkin, who had grown up near Station No. 5 and who became the Ottawa Fire Chief from 1967 to 1975.
Fire and firefighters continued to feature in the Rossignol family life. In the 1970s, Michel remembers waking up to the sound of sirens outside his parents’ house. “It was about three o’clock in the morning and I heard the fire trucks,” says Michel. “They stopped right in front of our house; I saw the pumper and all the other trucks, so I went outside and saw this flame shoot out into the air, just an incredible sight, and I thought it was my grandmother’s place. I didn’t know it was the printer next door. Just as I was getting really concerned about my grandmother and others in the house, I saw them on the porch, a fireman helping them to safety.” His grandmother moved out of the house at 220 Guigues because of the fire damage.
Michel’s grandmother would have been so proud to know that he ended his working career at the Library of Parliament, the library her husband fought so hard to save in 1916. She would also be pleased to know that, at the end of his career, Michel worked on policies to ensure that veterans like his father were treated with respect.