Tuesday, April 13, 2010

As Peter Mansbridge would say, some remarkable news today: the city of Regina has not had a single fire fatality in two years.

The Regina Fire Department credits changes to bylaws that include improved public education and mandatory hard-wired smoke detectors in rental properties.

Mayor Pat Fiacco said the fire department is “unique among fire services across North America in the way they prioritize public education and prevention services.”

“Their work,” he said, “and commitment has made a major difference to our community in saving lives and property."

There were an average of six fire fatalities annually in Regina in the 1970s; that number has since dropped to an average of one.

Impressive.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Congrats to Jamie Zimmerman, the new deputy fire chief for administration and support services in Waterloo, Ont. Zimmerman fills the position left vacant by Andrew Lillico, who left last year to become the fire chief for Wellesley Township.

Zimmerman has more than 20 years experience in fire service and was the first fire chief for the Town of Minto.

Waterloo acting chief Larry Brassard said that after a 10-month search, Zimmerman was chosen for his unique skill set.

"A big part of coming into our fire service is fit,” he said. “We were looking for someone who fits our department because they become a part of our family. Our family has to be fully functional. Jamie fits our family very well.”

In classic fire department style, the press release from Waterloo announcing Zimmerman’s appointment said the department “revealed another new member of its family” over the weekend — a new $800,000 Quint.

“Although red in colour, the truck is considered very green,” the press release says. “It has diesel engine emission controls and energy efficient LED lighting.”

Cool!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

With less than two weeks until FDIC my in box is being flooded with new product releases (where are the invitations to the hospitality suites?) and other cool stuff, including this online tool – http://community.fdic.com/ – that allows FDIC attendees to plan their trade show walkabout and meet with vendors. It’s a useful feature that will make your visit to the gargantuan FDIC trade show easier and more efficient.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

At the Maritime Association of Fire Chiefs conference a couple of years back, Fire Chief Vince MacKenzie of Grand Falls-Windsor, N.L., detailed the efforts of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Fire Services to lobby and educate provincial politicians about the need for funding for the fire service. Many in the crowd were stunned to hear about the positive relationship between the association and the province – after all, fire is a municipally funded service and, traditionally, provincial politicians have paid little attention to the fire service.  

Last summer, MacKenzie, who is now the president of the Newfoundland and Labrador association, proudly boasted about $152,000 in provincial grants for volunteer fire departments to help fund operations, prevention and training.

And this week, MacKenzie was rather jubilant when the Newfoundland and Labrador budget included $1.3 million for new fire trucks and PPE along with the continuation of travel subsidies for volunteer training and the hiring of a fire protection officer for Labrador.

Nice work!

So it was interesting to meet Fire Engineering editor-in-chief Bobby Halton at the Firefighters Speak Up event in Ilderton, Ont., on Saturday. Halton, a former chief and a cancer survivor whose lithe frame (he has gone from 240 pounds to about 165) is a testimony to the ravages of the disease, did a 3.5-hour training presentation to volunteer firefighters from several Ontario communities.

Fire Engineering Editor-in-chief Bobby Halton (centre) with Jeff Musser, Lonnie Fltecher, Carlin Riley, Blair Harvey, Steve Cook and Mike Reid at the FireFighting in Canada sponsored Firefighters Speak Up Saturday in Ilderton, Ont. Photo by Laura King. Click here to view larger image

Halton, of course, co-wrote the Fire Command books with retired Phoenix Fire Chief Alan Brunacini but, he says, much of what’s in them is out of date. A new edition is in the works. The point, he says, is that the fire service is changing and we need to embrace that change instead of living by the old rules.

We all know about lightweight construction and highly combustible contents and flashover, Halton said, but “we have a predilection for interior attack . . . and if we don’t go in then we’re cowards,” he said. “And you’re looking at a gutless coward. In my world the job of the first due engine company is to locate the fire. If you go in searching and you don’t know where the fire is, you end up . . . dead. You’ve got to know where the fire is.”

Good advice.

Came across a news item yesterday on the website of Mix 97 radio in Quinte West, Ont. Stirling-Rawdon – a lovely community in Hastings County, north of Belleville, Ont. – is moving ahead with plans to build a new police/fire department.

I visited Stirling-Rawdon a couple of weeks ago with Randy Vilneff, the training officer for nearby Marmora & Lake, and Stirling-Rawdon Chief Gene Thompson. The present Stirling-Rawdon fire hall is a former car dealership that’s been modified and while functional, lacks some of the basic necessities.

Stirling-Rawdon council awarded the construction tender to Peak Engineering of Brighton, Ont., which produced the lowest of four bids,  at $2.4 million. Infrastructure money from senior levels of government will cover two-thirds of the cost. Remarkably, the new building is supposed to be ready by Christmas – can’t imagine that happening in a larger municipality.

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.