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Peter Sells Flashpoint blog
Written by Peter Sells   
Last year in my column about emotional intelligence I wrote about how a firefighter, especially in a command role, would benefit from the ability to manage emotions in an inherently chaotic situation. The key point was that our objective is to bring rationality to a chaotic situation, to be part of the solution by avoiding becoming part of the problem. This past weekend I saw why it is so important that we achieve that objective.
by Peter Sells | 06/24
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Peter Sells Flashpoint blog
Written by Peter Sells   
Earlier this year I wrote about the attempt made by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU) to organize the volunteer firefighters of the Sudbury Fire Department. I drew a comparison between the situation faced by volunteer firefighters in many parts of Canada and the schtick of the late, great Rodney Dangerfield. Essentially, volunteers do not get the respect they deserve.  Within their communities, yes, they are the heroes and leaders that are looked up to in exactly the same way as their brothers and sisters in career departments.  But when it comes to recognition within the greater fire service, volunteers are often unfairly regarded as second-class citizens.
by Peter Sells | 05/13
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Peter Sells Flashpoint blog
Written by Peter Sells   
In my previous blog, I discussed how the Canadian government does nothing to level the playing field among communities that can afford top-notch fire protection and those that cannot. My thanks to those who kept the discussion going. This time I would like to recognize that there are fire service organizations across Canada that aren’t willing to simply accept the status quo – organizations that pull themselves up by the bootstraps and strive to meet their challenges despite having little or no budget and, in some cases, no fire protection infrastructure.

 

by Peter Sells | 04/15
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Peter Sells Flashpoint blog
Written by Peter Sells   
March 18, 2009,

A quick look at the sports culture in the U.S. and Canada:

Baseball – played on a field featuring a mound of dirt;

NASCAR – races are run on tracks with steep banks;

Football – the field is slightly crowned to allow drainage;

Golf – don’t we all wish that the greens were perfectly flat?

Soccer – see football, above.

by Peter Sells | 03/18
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Peter Sells Flashpoint blog
Written by Peter Sells   
Feb. 18, 2009

In one of those weird coincidences of history, like Harry Houdini dying on Halloween, we were reminded a few days ago, Feb. 12 to be exact, that both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln were celebrating their 200th birthdays. What were the chances that two of the pivotal minds of the nineteenth century would have been born on the same day? Don’t get me started, or I will calculate the actual chances of that – it’s just an expression, OK?

by Peter Sells | 02/18
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Smoke, fire and coincidence
Written by Laura King   
Feb. 6, 2009

You may have read in this week’s newspapers about firefighters in
Baddeck, N.S., who rescued the driver and five passengers from an Acadian Lines bus that left the Trans-Canada Highway and plunged into the icy Baddeck River.
by Laura King | 02/11
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Observations on a February day
Written by Laura King   
Feb. 4, 2009

Ah, winter in Canada. Freshly fallen snow. Awesome skiing. And fires. Lots and lots of fires. Every morning we (either me or my editorial assistant) search the news wires for items to post on the home page of our website. And every morning lately there have been stories of fire deaths. There’s nothing new about this today – it’s just an observation on the morning after a little girl was tossed to safety from a second-storey window in a Toronto townhouse but a 63-year-old woman died after the oxygen tank in her bedroom exploded. Her husband – now a widower – says he expects she was having a smoke. Unbelievable.

by Laura King | 02/04
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Sprinkler issue gets attention
Written by Laura King   
Jan. 25

Blog reader Tony Porcaro hit the nail on the head when he posted comments on this site on Sunday, noting that the sprinkler issue is becoming a political football. He also noted the editorial in Saturday’s Toronto Star (which I had read shortly before his comments arrived in my e-mail in box) that listed several reasons (or, more aptly, excuses) why politicians should examine this issue more thoroughly and not just bow to pressure from firefighters to force operators of private nursing homes to install sprinkler systems. It’s like bicycle helmets for kids, mouth guards for minor hockey players and seatbelts for everyone: how many vulnerable seniors have to die in nursing home fires before we give our heads a collective shake and wonder what in the name of time we were thinking?

by Laura King | 01/26
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