Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Rarely are editors (like me) accused of having a sense of humour but this headline from the Belleville Online Pioneer Plus caught my eye in a news search yesterday afternoon:

Belleville is getting a new fire truck . . . and the Zamboni will just have to wait

You can read the story here and learn how the forthcoming harmonized sales tax affected council’s decision to buy the tanker now but hold off on the Zamboni.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Did you catch CBC’s Marketplace Friday night? If not you can see the episode on sprinklers – or, rather, the lack of sprinklers – in seniors homes here. Scroll down to the comments from viewers – makes for interesting reading.

Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs president Richard Boyes said all the right things, telling Marketplace host Erica Johnson that there’s no doubt there will be more fires in seniors homes and more people will die.

Johnson surprised Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services Rick Bartolucci outside his Toronto office and asked him why the Liberal government has declined to require all nursing homes to have sprinklers.

Bartolucci, who has generally been a friend of the fire service, spouted some gobbledygook about listening to what the fire marshal says and enacting legislation accordingly but didn’t answer Johnson's question and was then sprinted off by his handlers.

As Boyes said last week, the OAFC played nice for a while, courting and educating the minister and hoping he would make sprinklers mandatory in all nursing homes. Now, the gloves are off.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

For years, the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs – with some help from outspoken Niagara Falls Assistant Fire Chief Jim Jessop – has been pushing for sprinklers in retirement homes. The deaths of two seniors in a fire in Orillia, Ont. (and two more later, in hospital), in January 2009 bolstered the cause but the Ontario government has failed to respond with legislation.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A big story out of Lethbridge, Alta. After considerable lobbying by residents (and, no doubt, the Alberta Fire Chiefs Association and Lethbridge Fire Chief Brian Cornforth), the province has frozen plans to centralize ambulance dispatch operations to Calgary and Edmonton. In addition, Lethbridge firefighters will continue to provide paramedic service.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

One benefit of blogging is that you get to read other people’s blogs in the name of research and expanding your blogging horizons. Tim Beebe, who writes the Spontaneous Combustion column for our Canadian Firefighter quarterly magazine, is the fire chief in Upsala, Ont. Ever been to Upsala? Me neither. By all accounts (or at least by all Tim’s accounts) Upsala is a snowy place hours north of Thunder Bay with lonely stretches of highway, plenty of moose and far-flung mutual aid partners who arrive hours after the call. Fortunately for Tim, his wit, sense of humour and writing talent keep him sane and help him through the sometimes bizarre incidents to which he and his volunteers respond. You can read about Tim’s exploits on his blog. Bookmark it!

March 15, 2010

It’s fitting that Ottawa Fire Chief John deHooge focuses on residential sprinklers in today’s interview with the Ottawa Citizen to mark his first 60 days on the job. (You can read the story here.)

Sadly, as the Citizen reports, here’s what the fire service is up against:

March 12, 2010

Some big new stories have surfaced in the last couple of days.

The B.C. government announced yesterday – mere days after the Olympics ended – that it is reorganizing the B.C. Ambulance Service. This is no surprise given that BCAS had been on strike and was legislated back to work just weeks before the Games. CUPE spokesman B.J. Chute called the reorganization “retribution by a vindictive health minister” for the strike. Harsh words indeed. You can read the story here .