Langford Fire Chief Chris Aubrey says it is hard to find the words to express how much Assistant Chief Lance Caven has meant to the department.
Caven lost his battle with cancer, believed to be contracted from his firefighting duties, on Sunday at the age of 50. Caven was married with a child, and had been with Langford Fire Rescue for more than 30 years.
“He spent his entire career serving and protecting the members of this community,” Aubrey said. “No one embodied the values of the fire service more than Lance.
“He was passionate about the fire service but his eyes truly lit up when he talked about his family, and my profound condolences go out to all of his family and all of his friends.”
Aubrey said Caven was “the very heart” of the department. “It will be his laughter, his kindness and his enthusiasm that we miss most.”
Work-related cancer is the leading cause of line-of-duty death among firefighters in North America, Aubrey said.
Several agencies are working to reduce such deaths, he said. Forty of the 48 people honoured recently with inclusion on the Fallen Firefighters’ Memorial at the legislature had occupational cancer, Aubrey said, and they will be joined by Caven at the next ceremony in two years.
“It is truly my hope that we can prevent more names from being added in the future.”
Aubrey said the department is working through the process of categorizing Caven’s death as work-related with WorkSafe B.C. and others, but there is already a link between the type of cancer he had and his profession.
“We certainly here have no doubt that his cancer was related to firefighting.”
He said that when firefighters are at an incident they are in what can be described as “a toxic soup” with all the substances that a fire releases.
Firefighters’ protective gear is also being looked at as a possible source of contaminants, Aubrey said.
The Workers Compensation Act “provides a presumption in favour of accepting occupational disease claims for firefighters who have one of the 18 diseases stipulated in the Act,” WorkSafe B.C. said in a statement.
“Under a presumption, if a firefighter develops one of the listed cancers after a certain period of employment, they will be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits without having to prove the cancer is work-related,” the statement said. “In B.C., occupational disease kills more workers than all other types of injury combined.”
Caven’s time as a firefighter began in 1991 in a volunteer role, which he took on as soon as he graduated from Belmont Secondary.
“Born and raised in Langford, a true Langfordite through and through,” Aubrey said.
Caven moved into a full-time, career position in 2002 and became assistant chief in 2017. “He was responsible for all of our fire inspections, fire-safety education and our fire investigations.”
He said that Caven was a mentor to him and many others.
“So many people have reached out to say that they either knew of Lance through the fire service or had a chance to know him back in high school or through his other occupations,” he said. “He had other occupations before joining the fire service. He’s just so well-known.”
He left “an indelible mark” on the entire community.
Langford Coun. Lillian Szpak said she knew Caven for some time and was elected to council the same year he became a career firefighter. She also chaired the protective-services committee for 20 years, and through that dealt closely with the fire department.
Caven was “a lovely person,” she said.
“Lance was the person whose eye you wanted to catch when you went into the firehall,” Szpak said. “He was always pleasant, always with a smile and a personal remark. He made it his business to make people feel welcomed and part of the group.”
She said Caven was also “profoundly professional.”
”He epitomized what you wanted to see in a first responder.”
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