Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Tim Vandenbrink lived up to his billing yesterday at the Maritime Fire Chiefs Association conference here in Yarmouth, N.S. Tim, the assistant fire marshal in fire protection for Edmonton Fire Rescue, does for fire/life safety and public education what Billy Goldfeder does for firefighter safety and Alan Brunacini did for incident command.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

It was great to see Ian Laing of Central York Fire Services in Ontario here in Yarmouth as a presenter for the Maritime Fire Chiefs Association conference. Laing’s Billy Goldfeder-style presentation about seatbelt safety was honest and blunt and most certainly sent a message to the 200 chief officers in the audience. Buckle up!

Monday, July 5, 2010

As is usual these days, we’re on the road again, in Yarmouth, N.S., this week for the Maritime Association of Fire Chiefs conference. More on that in a minute. Meantime, thanks to all the good folks at Firehall.com for the positive comments on the acquisition by Annex Publishing & Printing, the parent company of FFIC and Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly, of the website and your encouragement to keep it fresh and moving forward.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Played catch up yesterday after arriving home late Wednesday night from the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association conference in Edmonton. Congrats to past AFCA president Brian McEvoy and working group members, along with Volunteer Alberta, which has put together a fabulous recruitment and retention tool kit for volunteer departments that, hopefully, will be used a model right across the country. We’ll do a full story on the document shortly in Fire Fighting in Canada.

Friday, June 18, 2010

We’ve been talking a lot at FFIC about online forums, the benefits or risks of unmonitored forums and the dumb things people sometimes say online. As we’ve said here before, firefighters, like hockey parents, love forums but some self control and self censorship are necessary – it’s that old 24-hour rule: wait 24 hours before you react to an issue and by then you’ll have cooled off sufficiently and will likely reconsider your rant. Which brings us to today’s story about Halifax Fire Chief Bill Mosher and Deputy Chief Stephen Thurber filing a defamation suit against seven people, including two firefighters, for stuff they allegedly said in a local newspaper’s an online forum. You can read the story here.

Friday, June 11, 2010

A day late but as promised some further highlights from the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs first annual golf tournament at beautiful Glen Abbey in Oakville, Ont.

OAFC past-president Richard Boyes appears to still be in charge before tee off Monday at Glen Abbey. Photo by Laura King

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Where to start after several days on the road?

The editorial in our June issue of Fire Fighting in Canada asks whether an FDIC North is worth considering. There’s been lots of talk about regional Fire Department Information Courses in Canada aimed at front-line firefighters but there’s some trepidation about the magnitude of such events. The guys at FDIC Atlantic have it down to a science.

Last weekend’s FDIC Atlantic at Acadia University in Wolfville, N.S. – the 16^th annual, by the way – is a brilliant example of how to run a productive and relevant regional training weekend and trade show that’s affordable for volunteers, manages to attract top-notch speakers (who donate their time and skills) and brings together hundreds of firefighters (490 to be exact – including about 50 females) from all over the Atlantic provinces to train and network.