Ivan Kristoff makes a humble hero
by Rozalia Hristova
Canadian nomination for the Therese Gasgrain Volunteer Awards
Even though he was nominated as one of Canada’s heroes for 2001, Ivan Kristoff does not look or act like a hero. He does not feel like one either.
Bulgarian-born Canadian citizen Kristoff has been nominated together with four more employees of different rescue services in Canada.
The nominations were made as a tribute to men and women who participate daily in rescue missions, risking their own lives for the sake of other people’s security. The winner is to be announced in April.
“For the first time a volunteer was put together with the gods of rescue operations, the police, fire department and emergency,” Kristoff said.
The 33-year-old Bulgarian is one of the renowned aerial rescue experts in North America. He is the founder of the Eiger Highrise Emergency Aerial Response Team, or Eiger HEART, a non-profit organisation whose aim is to “minimise loss of life and to increase the safety to the public.”
Kristoff studied machine engineering in Sofia and did his military service in the engineer troops of the Bulgarian Armed Forces.
“Since a very young age I have liked to be in the air, to hang,” he said.
“This is a great thrill for me.”
Kristoff has participated in numerous dangerous and complicated aerial and rope access projects in Canada. He and his colleagues repair roofs, aluminum joinery and vertical walls of skyscrapers. He sometimes takes part in rescue operations when called to help with extinguishing fires or saving lives. When the object is hard to reach he goes down with special ropes from a helicopter.
Kristoff’s latest operation was in Toronto when he had to remove icicles from a 34-storey building.
“The police had to stop the traffic in order to prevent accidents,” he said.
“There was also an extremely heavy wind. Even while I was working on the building, the icicles started falling.”
After the successful completion of the task, he was told that people watching him work were making bets whether he would survive.
In addition to his daily rescue operations, Kristoff also does a lot of demonstrations.
“At the beginning, nobody was paying attention to me. I was not only a volunteer doing risky rescue operations but I was also a foreigner.”
It was only after the first demonstrations that people started listening to him and taking him seriously.
In October 2001, he was chosen and sponsored by Panasonic Canada to deliver the ball from the roof of the SkyDome during the Final Home Game of the Toronto Argonauts in front of 30,000 people. The descent was shown live on TV to millions viewers across North America.
Kristoff said he had decided to save people’s lives after he heard about four people dying after the breaking of the Skyway Bridge close to Niagara Falls in Ontario in the early 1990s.
“The fire department could not get to the place for 30 minutes because they did not have the equipment. Then I made a pledge to save people’s lives because I had the necessary equipment.”
Later on, he found out that saving lives was actually the easiest part. “The hardest thing was to change the established way of thinking that a volunteer could not do something better than the royal army.”
The rescuer said he was not scared when he worked.
“Sometimes I feel a reasonable, healthy fear because one should be a complete idiot if he cannot estimate the danger factor.”
He said that when facing a big danger, he concentrated best. After overcoming a risky situation, he always reassessed his abilities and what the limits of the reasonable risk were.
Always ready to face new challenges, Kristoff has so far fulfilled one of his biggest dreams, to go to America. His other dream, to become an astronaut, is still to be achieved but his short-term ambition at the moment is to file five Guinness records, climbing down and up to a helicopter on a rope, climbing down and up to a balloon on a rope and climbing down and up Niagara Falls.
Despite his nomination as Canada’s hero, Kristoff does not feel like one.
“When you are hero, you do not have the time to feel like one, you are so busy,” the nominee said.
“I feel a hero in other circumstances – when I have helped Bulgarians, when I have gathered them, when I have changed their lives.”
One of his missions in Canada is to help the Bulgarian community there. He has financed the education of Bulgarian students.
“Bulgaria is my home country,” Kristoff said.
“Bulgaria is the country that made me be the man I have become. The longer I live in Canada, the prouder I am to be Bulgarian.”
Currently, he has come back to his home country to help boost the national spirit of his compatriots.
“Bulgarians need a waking up. I can see a loss of Bulgarian identity.”
One of the reasons for his visit was the accident at Indigo discotheque in Sofia at the end of December.
“What happened there was unbelievable. I came here to initiate some charity events and help with what I can.”
He is planning some aerial climbing demonstrations. He has also joined the Bulgarian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Solomon Passi which visited Russia from January 30 to February 1. He said he would try to establish contacts, which would help him gather finances and help secure lives of Bulgarian children.
