Oct 5, 2015
A pregnant woman and her husband are alive today “simply because they had the right kind of smoke detector in their home,” Fire Chief Frank Zugan said. Zugan said the home was fully engulfed when the fire department arrived, three minutes after a call. The family would likely have died had they not been awakened by the photoelectric smoke detector on the first floor. The ionization detector outside the couple’s bedroom door did not go off. Click Click here to read more.
Oct 5, 2015
A battle over whether Ontario’s firefighters should be able to administer six “symptom relief” medications – including aspirin – is heating up across the province. Earlier this year, the Ontario Fire Fighters Association sent a discussion paper to the province urging the creation of a new position called “fire-medics” – essentially firefighters with additional paramedic training.
Oct 5, 2015
To reduce the wildfire risk to communities, Premier Christy Clark announced a top-up of $10 million to the Strategic Wildfire Prevention Initiative and tasked the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resouce Operations to look at ways to reduce wildfire risk through on-the-ground operations. The program is intended to help local governments and First Nations significantly reduce wildfire risks around their communities. Click Click here to read more.
Oct 5, 2015
Ferrara Fire Apparatus has unveiled the Inundator Super Pumper, a Guinness World Record titleholder for the highest pumping capacity fire engine. The pump is a whopping four times the size of a regular fire truck pump. It debuted in June at Interschutz 2015, an international fire and disaster relief exhibition in Germany. Click Click here to read more.
Oct 5, 2015
Airbnb, a peer-to-peer site which matches those with accommodation to let with holiday makers and business travellers, has a network of close to 1 million properties across 190 countries. Whether you are looking for a single room for the night or a six bedroom villa for a week, Airbnb can offer affordable accommodation. However, how safe is it? Click Click here to read more.
Oct 5, 2015
Ironically, the most dangerous thing about an occupation that involves running into burning buildings isn’t the flames, but the smoke. Cancer is the leading cause of firefighter line-of-duty deaths in the U.S. and, according to the International Association of Firefighters, about 60 percent of career firefighters will die this way, “with their boots off”. Click Click here to read more.
Sep 8, 2015
Barry Lavoie, an engineer at BAE Systems, says he can give firefighters in burning buildings the gift of sight. His invention, Thermal on Demand, is a face mask and imaging system that looks like a prop from a cyborg movie. Its three thermal-imaging settings allow firefighters to clearly see the outlines of obstacles in pitch-black conditions. Warm objects, such as a body or flames, appear as ghostly white figures.
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Sep 8, 2015
Most fire service leaders agree that fire prevention is far cheaper in all aspects than fire suppression. A lot of resources are required for local governments to provide fire inspections. A recent study found the majority of public buildings inspected are compliant. Over 70 percent of the properties identified in the study were fully compliant or had very minor deficiencies.
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Sep 8, 2015
South Africa has 1.9 million people living in informal settlements. In these high population density communities, it is not uncommon for massive shack fires to erupt, spreading quickly and resulting in death and mass displacement. Lumkani, a South African based start-up, emerged in response to these fires and the limitations of Western-developed smoke detectors. Their solution is a device that both detects fires and alerts nearby residents.
Sep 8, 2015
During the next three years, researchers at Case Western Reserve University will team with NASA Glenn Research Center and firefighters nationally, from Cleveland to Oregon, to design and test sensors aimed at protecting firefighters from respiratory damage and illness. The sensors will alert structural and wildland firefighters of hazards in the air after they’ve entered the phase called “fire overhauling or mop up.”
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