One of the firefighters who battled ‘the beast’ even as his own home burned to the ground will be taking on another challenge next month as he competes in an all-firefighter episode of Chopped Canada.
“I actually found out the first day I got back to work, we were obviously fighting the fire, but once we got back to a fire hall, when I had a couple minutes I checked my e-mail and I actually found out at that time that I was chosen for the show,” said Scott Germain.
He said the episode was taped back at the end of May, at a time when he was already experiencing a great deal of stress in his life.
“You know, you’re still dealing with everything concerning the fire. We were kind of back to our regular shift but we needed to get special permission to be able to leave to go do this. My wife came with me, actually,” he said. “But it was only I think two weeks after we lost our home so it was pretty stressful just to be involved in that kind of environment and having to deal with all that stress and the stress of being, you know, on the show.”
He said since the taping he’s had to keep secret how well he did but that all comes to and end when the episode airs December 10 at 7 p.m. on the Food Network.
“I believe I said on the show that I was competing for Fort McMurray and kind of having the whole city behind me and being able to compete for everybody I think was, for me, the best part of the show,” said Germain. “Going there I didn’t really care if I won or lost, I was just happy I was able to have that great experience and be able to, I guess, dedicate it to the whole city.”
Because the community was still under a mandatory evacuation order Germain had to film his background footage at a fire hall in Fort Saskatchewan, where his in-laws are from, and he said he was grateful for how welcoming the firefighters there were to him and the crew.
He said he believes the show is going to feature some footage of the fire in introducing him as well.
Germain is a huge fan of the show and said he’s looking forward to watching it with his wife, friends, family, and fellow firefighters when the episode airs.
He said he was fortunate to find a rental home across the street from where his home burnt down and he and his wife have watched the steady progress of their rebuild in the months since the fire. The shingles of their roof have been installed already and he’s hopeful it won’t be long before they can move back home.
Germain said since he dedicated his competition to our community he hopes he does us proud.
