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. John and panic ensued.
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. Eighty-six of the City’s 109 churches were either badly damaged or destroyed. Surprisingly, only six fatalities were recorded.
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 firefighting is controversial, with wildland fire experts suggesting it won’t work.
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.
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 why some homes survived the massive wildfire while many others were destroyed.
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 good. The research was prompted by a video of flaming bourbon.
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 training.
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.
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.
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.