Volunteer firefighter remembered after Dartmouth crash

The man who died after a three-vehicle crash on the Forest Hills Extension in Dartmouth, N.S., on Tuesday was an off-duty volunteer firefighter at Station 23 Chezzetcook.

Ben Baurin, 20, was an active member of the station for about 15 months.

"Being firefighters, we unfortunately routinely have to deal with traumatic events and car accidents and so on. But this one hits a little bit too close to home, seeing as it was one of our members," said Hugues MacKay, a volunteer captain and station chief with Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency at Station 23 Chezzetcook.

"Ben was active on calls. I had just been on a call with Ben on Monday and then he passed away on Tuesday. We had regularly interaction with Ben."

Baurin first joined the station in May 2017 and graduated from the volunteer recruitment training in December 2017, MacKay said.

He said Baurin was a very likeable person who trained with his fellow firefighters regularly on Tuesday nights. He was the kind of person who joked around and "was always smiling and happy."

But MacKay said the thing he'll remember most about Baurin was his inquisitive nature.

"He always sought to understand why we did things a certain way and I know that a lot of us with a little bit more experience than him really enjoyed being able to answer those questions and pass on our knowledge," he said.

"When speaking to a group of volunteers or group of firefighters, Ben was always the one person [who would ask] 'Why? But how?' and he really sought to understand why and how things were done." 

MacKay said outside of firefighting duties, Baurin was an athletic guy who enjoyed playing baseball.

He said he found out Baurin was involved in the car crash after a call from Station 1 in Halifax. He said fellow firefighters have been handling the news "fairly well given the type of incident."

Others in the community, including Station 21 Lake Echo and Coun. David Hendsbee, have been posting condolence messages for Baurin on Facebook.