FireWatch

FireWatch is a service that provides links to news stories from the fire community that have attracted our attention.

Improved Fire Safety for Pneumatic Control Systems

Improved Fire Safety for Pneumatic Control Systems

FM-approved FireChek thermal shutoffs with resettable memory shape alloy can now be used to automatically shut down a pneumatic control system when a nearby fire occurs, or when the ambient temperature reaches 135, 150, or 165⁰ F. The testability and reset ability of...

Drone Helps Fight Washington State Wildfires

Drone Helps Fight Washington State Wildfires

Insitu, the Boeing Subsidiary that makes unmanned aircraft systems, is helping emergency responders in Washington State as they work to tame wildfires that have spread across the Pacific Northwest, destroying and threatening thousands of homes. The company recently...

Smoke Alarms Take Human Form in Kiwi Fire Safety Campaign

Smoke Alarms Take Human Form in Kiwi Fire Safety Campaign

A campaign from New Zealand came up with an interesting idea to remind people to check their smoke alarms are working. It stresses how smoke alarms are our “only voice”, in other words our sole warning, in the event of a danger at night, by giving them...

Fuel Dispensing Stations – Checklist

Fuel Dispensing Stations – Checklist

 Fuel Dispensing Stations – Checklist   Definition: Any premise where flammable or combustible liquids are dispensed from fixed equipment into the fuel tanks of motor vehicles, watercraft or floatplanes.  Above Ground Tanks The BC Fire Code limits the maximum...

A New Online Company Fire Inspection Training Program from FireWise

The fire prevention awareness and company inspection training program is designed to raise the awareness level about fire prevention and to train on-duty fire suppression staff to confidently perform company level fire prevention inspections of low occupant load - low...

Wildfires Across Canada Significantly Higher Than Last Year

Fire season is just getting started, but already the country has seen twice the number of forest fires compared to last year. To date, 2,549 fires had ignited across 263,201 hectares of forest. Compare that to the same time last year: there were only 1,195 fires that...

35 Fire Department Lock Boxes Initially Believed Compromised

35 Fire Department Lock Boxes Initially Believed Compromised

Victoria fire inspectors have discovered that fewer multi-unit buildings were compromised than originally thought after only six access keys were determined to be missing from the nearly 500 buildings lock boxes. The fire department said that 35 keys were missing from...

The Ancient Art of Fire Spotting

The Ancient Art of Fire Spotting

You would think the U.S. Forest Service would have a sophisticated fire-prevention network in place but apparently nothing beats a human being with a pair of binoculars and a healthy knowledge of the forest mountain tops for spotting a brush fire.  The U.S....

Fire Chief Says Mandatory Home Inspections Will Not Be Intrusive

With home inspections now underway for the new mandatory carbon monoxide (CO) detectors, Timmins firefighters began going house to house through city neighbourhoods to make sure those detectors are working properly.  Fire Chief Mike Pintar commented that many...

Canadian Government’s Directive for Oil Trains to Slow Down

Canadian Government’s Directive for Oil Trains to Slow Down

In a bid to promote rail safety, the Canadian government has issued an emergency directive to ensure that trains which carry dangerous goods like crude oil and ethanol slowdown in urban areas.  The directive requires the trains not to operate at speeds more than...

The World’s Most Polluted Bird Is Now Completely Immune to Fire!

The World’s Most Polluted Bird Is Now Completely Immune to Fire!

Canada's Greater Vancouver is home to a bird species so polluted with chemicals, it is resistant to fire. A team of Canadian researchers identified Cooper's Hawk as the most polluted wild bird species in the world after analyzing liver samples from Vancouver's birds...

Forests Burning at Alarming Rates in Canada and Russia

Fires are ravaging the forests of Russia and Canada, burning at a higher rate in some cases than at any time in the past 10,000 years.  High-resolution satellite maps showed the two nations lost a combined average of nearly 6.8 million hectares (26,000 square...

Diversity Demonstrated in the Fire Service

 A new group ofToronto firefighters have been given their badges and caps and are now ready to answer the bell at fire stations across the city. Thomas Dario Ladu, who came from Uganda seven years ago, was one of 39 new graduates with Toronto Fire Services....

U.S. and Canada Moving Toward Higher Safety Standards for Oil Trains

After a series of spectacular oil-train crashes and accompanying fires the United States and Canada are preparing to announce that new higher flammability requirements will be adopted for railroad oil-tanker safety.   Higher safety standards for oil trains

University Students use Sound to Extinguish Fire

Senior engineering students at George Mason University have developed a sonic fire extinguisher. It lets out sound waves at a specific frequency that disrupts the oxidation at the core of a fire.  It basically separates the fuel source from the oxygen it needs to...

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