Car crash sees angry motorists verbally abuse first responders
Science fails forest fire fighters
In his keynote presentation to the Wildland Fire Conference in Kelowna Dr. David Martell, from the University of Toronto's Faculty of Forestry, said the scientific work done in Canada around forest fires is an embarrassment. According to Dr. Martell the Canadian...
Yellowknife’s fire department understaffed and overworked
A recently released report found Yellowknife's fire department is struggling to manage call volume, conduct training and prevent employee burnout. The report, produced by Calgary's Behr Consulting, calls for a significant increase in staff. Click here to read more.
Airlines adding fire containment bags for overheating phones
At least three U.S. airlines are adding new fire suppression equipment to fleets in case a cellphone or laptop battery overheats, catches on fire and can't be extinguished. The first airline to deploy fire containment bags on its entire fleet was Alaska Airlines....
Fire department gives hospital warning over patient beds in halls
The Saskatoon Fire Department issued a warning ticket to St. Paul's Hospital after they found a patient's trolley bed blocking a hallway during a recent inspection. The hospital was given two weeks to resolve the issue. Click here to read more.
October in fire history
The Great Miramichi Fire was a massive forest fire that devastated forests and communities in northern New Brunswick in October 1825. The fire consumed almost 16,000 square kilometres and took the lives of at least 160 people before burning itself out. Click here to...
Fire Department Chief killed in Bronx explosion is promoted
Chief Michael J. Fahy, a 44 year old battalion chief with the New York City Fire Department who was killed by debris after a house exploded in the Bronx has been promoted to deputy chief. Investigators continue to dig through the rubble to determine the cause of the...
New barn fire prevention tool
Equine Guelph has launched a new online tool as a resource for horse owners. The Barn Fire Prevention tool is easy to use and provides horse owners with interactive assessments for their individual facilities. Click here to read more.
Fire safety chemicals threaten public health
A number of associations have warned the use of chemical flame retardants in furniture to improve fire safety can have severe negative impacts on public health. Click here to read more.
Ottawa stopped counting fires on First Nation reserves in 2010
Conservate M.P. and former firefighter John Brassard asked for the number of fires that occurred on First Nation reserves in the past decade. His answer included numbers only up to 2010, when Indigenous Affairs stopped collecting the data. Click here to read more.
Fire Chief advocates for municipal sprinkler regulation
Pitt Meadows Fire Chief Don Jolley, vice-president of the Fire Chiefs Associaiton of BC, hopes a new regulation associated with BC's Building Act will encourage local governments to make sprinklers mandatory in new homes. Click here to read more.
Unclear Tweet causes panic during wildfires
When a wildfire in northern British Columbia grew large enough to threaten people and property Emergency Info BC tweeted a link to information about evacuation alerts and orders in Fort St. John. The problem with that was, the evacuation alerts weren't in Fort St....
September in Fire History – The Great Fire of London
The Great Fire of London broke out in the early morning hours of September 2, 1666. By the time the flames were extinguished, four days later, 13,200 homes in 400 streets had been burned or demolished to create firebreaks, with 70,000 to 80,000 people made homeless....
Boeing patents giant bullet to shoot down wildfires
Boeing has been awarded a patent for an artillery shell "designed to either detonate in front of a wildfire, spreading retardant materials on the ground to prevent the fire from progressing, or to detonate directly above it, dampening the flames." This method of...
The lonely lives of the last remaining forest fire lookouts
They call them "Freaks on the Peaks". A few years ago thousands of people spent their summers on mountaintops, living in remote lookout towers and scanning the surrounding wilderness for signs of smoke. Now only a few hundred remain. Click here to read more.
Learning from the Ft. McMurray wildfire disaster – preliminary report released
A preliminary report entitled "Why some homes survived: Learning from the Fort McMurray wildfire disaster", written by Alan Westhaver, M.Sc and published by the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, has been released. In the report the author explores the reasons...
New form of fire, inspired by bourbon, might help with oil spills
Fire whirls, commonly known as firenadoes, look like tornadoes and burn hotter than many other fires. Scientists from the University of Maryland conducted experiments on fire whirls because they thought there was a possibility that their power could be harnessed for...
Why no standards for rescue training?
The deaths of a firefighting student and a volunteer in separate training accidents in Ontario underscore the astonishing lack of regulation that exists across the dangerous profession. Both men died after being pulled under river ice during cold-water rescue...
Recent Articles
Yellowknife to Fort McMurray: lessons from the frontlines of Canada’s worst wildfires.
Volunteer firefighters see doubling in tax credit.
Oro-Medonte fire chief smokes out several ways to boost revenue.
Ahead of likely ‘ferocious’ wildfire season, fire chiefs lament drop in volunteers.
Vancouver firefighters get $2.8M from city to procure gear free of cancer-causing chemicals.
