The family and community of a Castor, Alta., man are in mourning after he was killed on an icy road while responding to a vehicle rollover late Friday night.
Stephen Rayfield, a volunteer firefighter, was responding to a call close to the town of Castor at around 8:30 p.m. Friday. The volunteer fire department serves the town and parts of Paintearth County.
Castor is around 138 km east of Red Deer.
“He just really was best,” said his wife Cheryl Rayfield. “I know everyone always says it, but he just put everyone else first all the time. He just wanted to make such a difference in his life to others.”
She says her husband was a hero, a “knight in shining armour,” to both her and her six year-old son Sawyer.
Cheryl and Stephen met in 2010 in Britain, where they are both from. In 2013, they got married and moved to Canada to start a life together.
They were in the process of obtaining Canadian citizenship so they could continue their lives together in Castor.
The night of the rollover, Cheryl says she didn’t want her husband to go to the call but Stephen was adamant he had to attend because someone could be hurt and could need help.
Stephen grabbed his keys and left. Not long after that, Cheryl said the doorbell rang and her heart sank.
“I was like, ‘This isn’t good.’ There was a voice in my head that was like, ‘Don’t open the door,’ and, ‘Nothing is going to be the same again.'”
A town devastated
Cheryl says the fire department were just like a family, especially when they were new to Alberta and they didn’t know many people.
Richard Elhard, mayor of the town, said he received a call on Friday at about 8:30 p.m. that a “horrific accident” had taken place.
Road conditions were extremely icy at the time and fire crews were travelling out to a motor vehicle accident. The driver of that vehicle was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Due to the ice, one of the fire trucks lost control and rolled.
The town’s fire chief, Patrick Kelly, was also injured in the accident.
“The community is just devastated,” Elhard said.
Elhard said Rayfield worked for a wind farm just west of town.
RCMP Cst. Patrick Lambert said it’s difficult to see first responders become the people being responded to themselves.
“Those atmospheres and environments are not something that we want to deal with,” he said.
“However, we recognize as men and women and Albertans within the first responder field, that at any time we may be called upon to provide support, medical assistance, or be the responder to one of our fellow partners.”
A big part of the community
The fire department in the community just recently moved into a new fire hall. Elhard said Rayfield was integral to the opening of the new hall.
Just recently, the firefighters in the community held a cash fundraiser and requested Elhard come down to make the draws. Rayfield had his phone out and was filming fire chief Kelly and the mayor.
“We were giving him the gears about what a poor cameraman he was, and the guys were all kibitzing around,” Elhard said. “That’s the last time I spoke with him.”
A volunteer firefighter from Castor, Alta., was killed over the weekend while responding to a vehicle rollover. Stephen Reyfield died on scene after the vehicle he was in lost control on the extremely icy roads. 2:17
Rayfield himself posted on the Facebook page on Jan. 26 for the Castor fire department, sharing the news of the opening of the new fire hall.
“Big massive thank you to everyone that has helped make this happen,” he wrote. “It means a lot to us all.”
Elhard said in the coming days he’s sure the mourning fire crew and Rayfield’s family will be supported by the community. Because of COVID-19, he’s unsure exactly what form that community support will look like at this time.
“But this community, for sure, will stand behind them,” he said.
Brian Starkell, national president of the Canadian Volunteer Fire Services Association, said losing any volunteer firefighter is a “huge tragedy.”
“In the fire industry, we’re a big family. When we have a tragedy with our own family, it’s a shock for all of us across Canada,” he said.
“[For] not just his immediate family, but also his department and the rest of the firefighters, it’s a brotherhood and a sisterhood, and it’s a shock to everybody.”
Kelly, the town’s fire chief, was transported to hospital in Red Deer. He has since been able to return home.
CBC News was able to reach the wife of the man in the first vehicle who firefighters were responding to, Leanne Gould.
Neither Gould nor her husband wanted appear on camera, but she said he was released from hospital the next day with bruises and scrapes and they are both “heartsick” over what happened. She said they will never have the words to express their gratitude to the first responders involved.
Cheryl Rayfield is asking people to remember Stephen as someone who made a difference a hero who made a difference to the people around him and died doing something he really loved.
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