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Catching up on the news . . .
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Interesting news day today. A sinkhole in Montreal swallowed a car full of people, a fire truck was stolen in B.C. and six firefighters were hurt in a controlled burn in Alberta. The planets must be aligned strangely, or something. You can see all three news stories here.
May 11, 2010
By
Laura King
–
A fire
chief who will remain nameless texted the following during Ontario Community
Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci’s speech at the Ontario Association of Fire
Chiefs convention last week: "Yaaaawn." OK, the speech wasn’t exactly titillating
and its content was rather inside baseball for those not in the thick of the
debate over residential sprinklers in Ontario.
But,
frankly, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to hear what Bartolucci would say
– or not say – about the OAFC’s push for mandatory sprinklers. The answer? Not
much, despite a way-too-long speech. Effectively the minister said Dalton McGuinty’s
Liberal government will not legislate mandatory sprinklers. Well, that’s the
gist of it. More work to be done, need to listen to all sides in the debate, everyone's committed to public safety and
thanks to outgoing OAFC President Richard Boyes for all his hard work on the issue. Hmmmm. There was much mumbling and reading between the lines afterwards. Anyone want to weigh in on this?
–
Made reservations
for FDIC Atlantic today. There’s been lots of talk about a Canadian version of
FDIC-Indianapolis so it’ll be interesting to see how they pull it off in Nova Scotia (they've been doing so for several years already). Organizers expect almost 500 delegates for the weekend of hands-on training and
workshops at Acadia University June 4-6. We’ll keep you posted.
–
A fire fatality
in Montreal yesterday, one in Newfoundland over the weekend and another in Toronto. The Toronto fatality brings the number of fire
deaths in the province to 24, compared to 46 this time last year. Better, but
not good enough.
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