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No one, it seems, wants to lead Quebec’s largest and busiest fire service.

The Montreal Fire Department has now gone without a chief longer than anytime in the past 80 years.

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The last director of the department, François Massé, quit at the end of September, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family. And it is an open secret that no one from outside the service and only one person from inside applied for his job. The hopeful was low enough on the management ladder to prompt the department to extend its search.

What’s more, an acting director, who was temporarily hoisted from a lower management job to the superior position while the department posted help-wanted ads, also recently left the service.

In fact, besides the director, the Montreal fire department has lost both its deputy fire chiefs, one of its four assistant directors and about a dozen division and battalion chiefs since last year.