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...
June in fire history – The Ufa train disaster
A powerful gas pipeline explosion demolished part of the trans-Siberian railway on June 4, 1989, engulfing two passenger trains in flames and leaving hundreds dead. Many of the victims were children bound for holiday camps by the Black Sea. Click here to read more.
Incremental alarms better for firefighter heart health
According to a recent study, incremental alarms help prevent firefighter heart rates from reaching extreme highs. And that could help curb a leading cause of firefighter deaths. Click here to read more.
Fire safety training comes to Ahousaht schools
Fire Safety experts arrived in Ahousaht to spend two days working with senior Maaqtusiis Secondary students and interested community members on home fire safety and firefighting training. Click here to read more.
Mirrors blamed for fire at world’s largest solar plant
A small fire shut down a generating tower at the world's largest solar power plant. Firefighters had to climb some 300 feet up a boiler tower after fire was reported on an upper level. Click here to read more.
Fires set by firefighters a long-standing problem experts say
An arson expert based in California says firefighter arson is a recognized, ongoing problem, but it's difficult to know exactly how common it is because authorities don't keep records. Click here to read more.
Too little being done to protect communities from wildfires
Yet another destructive wildfire raises questions about our failure to learn from Kelowna and Slave Lake - to take steps to guard against their fury. "This happened in Kelowna in 2003, why didn't we all learn from that?" Click here to read more.
Ten Ft. McMurray firefighters and what the fire took from them
At least 20 Fort McMurray firefighters - even as they helped save the homes of countless others from a wildfire that raged through their northern Alberta city - had their own hearts broken as their homes burned to the ground. The Toronto Star talked to ten of them....
Time to implement long-dormant plan for managing wildfires
In 2004, in Haines Junction, Yukon, the Canadian Council of Forest Ministers (CCFM) identified the need for a new, strategic approach to wildland fire management, based on a risk-management framework. In 2005, at the CCFM meeting in Saskatoon, the ministers signed the...
Visor lets firefighters see through the smoke
When you're fighting fires, you want as many weapons as possible at your disposal. Now, augmented reality glasses are helping firefighters navigate extreme working conditions. Click here to read more.
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