Whistler’s Fire Chief has a hobby you may not know about, and it got a major moment in the spotlight earlier this fall. 

Chief Thomas Doherty was asked last year by some firefighter colleagues to design and paint a custom firefighter’s helmet for Vancouver Canucks Captain Quinn Hughes, as a thank you to Hughes for his work supporting firefighters. 

Last year, the Canucks Captain launched Team 43, a community program to thank first responders and raise money for the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn Fund. “This program is a nod to his grandfather, Marty Hughes, who had a 31-year career as a firefighter and served as battalion chief with the New York City Fire Department,” a Canucks media release explained when the program launched in 2023. Part of the program includes tickets donated to every home game to firefighters, police, and emergency health services workers as a thank you, and an annual Firefighters Night with partial public ticket sales donated to the BC Burn Fund. 

When the call came in to thank Hughes with a unique gift, Chief Doherty answered enthusiastically; he then had the opportunity to present the helmet to the Canucks’ Captain at Firefighters Night at a home game. 

The Chief called it “an amazing night I will not forget.” 

We asked him a few questions to get the background on what went into the making of the helmet, and to get his reflections on the evening. 

Most people in Whistler probably didn’t know you had this unique talent and hobby outside of your busy life as Fire Chief. How did this get started? 

I’ve always been interested in art. I had an interest in learning how to do airbrushing, so I decided to buy an airbrush, and I was self-taught from there. I watched some YouTube videos and learned some different tricks and, lo-and-behold, it worked out.  

The first helmet I did, I did all by hand. It was a rendition of the Okanagan Mountain Park fire. I donated that helmet to the BC Training Officers Association as a fundraiser. It got auctioned off, and it raised something like $1500 dollars. Then the person that won it put it back into the raffle a second time, and it raised another $1500 dollars. So that first helmet raised some good funds. It just grew from there, and I have kept doing a little bit in my spare time. 

What is the process like for designing and creating these helmets? 

It depends on the level of detail. So I usually try to get a sense from whoever I’m creating it for, what the theme is and if there’s any sort of personal things I can incorporate into it. It usually starts with an existing helmet, so this one was a service helmet in Kelowna. Sometimes they come with a lot of nicks and whatnot, and that can add a bit of prep time. The majority of the work is just prepping the helmet and making sure the substrate is all cleaned off and sanded and smooth. And then it’s a series of layers; a base layer goes down and then you start applying all the different graphics to get the theme or image you want. Once that’s all done it goes through a clear coat process. We use a commercial auto clear that goes through a baking process to make sure it’s very durable. 

Some are fairly quick—10 to 20 hours. And some can be quite a bit longer, depending on the level of detail. 

How did it come about, this idea of creating a special helmet for the Captain of the Vancouver Canucks? 

I used to work for Kelowna Fire, and I stay in touch with my colleagues there. They knew I did these helmets. Then with the fires that happened in West Kelowna, Quinn Hughes from the Canucks went up and toured the fire stations there. After that, the Kelowna crew got a hold of me and said they wanted to give something back to him for his support. They knew I did some painting, so they suggested I do a helmet up for them, so I did. 

From the creation of the helmet to handing it over to the Canucks’ Captain, what was that experience like?  

I took some time to get some ideas together and complete the helmet. It was finished just prior to the playoffs starting, but I didn’t want to give it to them at playoff time in case it caused some sort of superstition [laughs], so we held onto it until this year, and we identified that October 30 was Firefighters’ Night, which meant that in the end we had the chance to go down there. We were supposed to meet him after the game, and what ended up happening is they took us down to ice level into a media room and they put a mic on me, which I wasn’t expecting. He came in with his family; his two brothers play for New Jersey. We did the presentation and took some photos, and it was a really exciting experience. 

I think it’s fantastic that he’s using his platform and influence to shine the spotlight on firefighters and first responders. It really shows, even for the younger kids growing up, what it means to always contribute back to the community. There are so many different avenues out there, and this is just one of them. There’s sometimes an expectation, as firefighters, that this is the role we signed up for and just part of the job, so when you have somebody of this stature that’s very well followed providing support and highlighting the work we do, it goes a long way. I think that it’s critical that kids growing up see that, and maybe it will inspire them to pay it forward.