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Captain Fred J. Brown is the only Firefighter to loose his life while on Duty, it happened 53 years ago and he is to be recognised by The Province of Manitoba for his sacrifice.  
The Olympia Café stood on the corner of Tenth Street and Rosser Avenue. It was built in 1883 as the Bank of North America. This building was destroyed by fire on April 6th. 1953 and included two business offices and an apartment dwelling place. All night staff Fire Fighters were summoned for duty and every Police Officer was called to control the thousands of spectators who flocked down town to watch the fire. Fire Captain Fred J. Brown lost his life fighting this fire on the eve of his retirement when he was trapped in the basement. An Assistant Fire Commissioners report stated that the smoke masks used during the Olympia Café fire was “apparently not the proper type under existing conditions, and may have been responsible for the death of Captain Brown. The mask’s canister would offer no protection against carbon monoxide: his postmortem revealed that his blood contained over eighty percent of this gas.