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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.
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Speaking
of FDIC, as in previous years, The Fire Within is taking a
crew of 20 Canadian firefighters to FDIC to experience hands on training, the
trade show and some of the hundreds of seminars (and other stuff to that we
won’t mention).
We figure
those firefighters might have some good stories to tell so they’re going to
blog here, on our website, for the duration of FDIC. We promised not to edit
too heavily but we will fix spelling and grammar! Stay tuned.
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A mutual
nose for news means the folks at the Office of the Fire Marshal in Toronto check our website every day, and
we check theirs. That led me to this New York Times page and a series of news
and feature stories on fires and firefighters that will keep you going through
even the quietest shift, starting with this tidbit:
“Each
year in the United States and its protectorates,
approximately 100 firefighters are killed while on duty and tens of thousands
are injured. Although the number of firefighter fatalities has steadily
decreased over the past 20 years, the incidence of firefighter fatalities per
100,000 incidents has actually risen. Despite a downward dip in the early
1990's, the level of firefighter fatalities is back up to the same levels experienced
in the 1980's." -- From the U.S. Fire Administration's
"Historical Overview."
Get a
coffee and settle in for some interesting reading.
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Fire
departments across Canada are having to deal with more
strict rules around workplace violence and harassment. New legislation comes
into effect in Ontario in June; other provinces have
already amended their legislation. We’re publishing a story on this subject in
our May edition of Fire Fighting in Canada but here’s an interesting take on
that issue combined with the flummoxing and sometimes frustrating issue of
next-generation firefighters and their work ethic.
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And,
lastly, I was surprised to learn that firefighters in Columbus, Ohio, wear bulletproof vests. Columbus city council has voted to buy 300
body-armour vests for firefighters. You can read more on Billy Goldfeder's Firefighterclosecalls.com
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