Montreal Fire Department has been without a chief since September of last year. In the last year the department has also lost both deputy chiefs, an assistant director and about twelve division and batallion chiefs. Labour strife, budget cuts and impending retirements add to the challenges that will be faced by the new chief.
Indigenous Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett has committed to resume tracking fire-related deaths in First Nations communities and to establishing an indigenous fire marshal’s office to oversee data collection and spearhead fire prevention. At least 173 people have died in fires on First Nations reserves since the federal government stopped tracking such deaths in 2010.
The National Fire Protection Association has issued a bulletin on fire hose safety that reminds the fire service of the importance of following NFPA 1961 (Standard on Fire Hose) and NFPA 1962 (Standard for the Care, Use, Inspection, Service Testing and Replacement of Fire Hose, Couplings, Nozzles and Fire Hose Appliances).
Researchers have found that the actual costs associated with a wildfire, such as home and business losses and damage to natural resources, can range from two to 60 times the suppression cost.
The Fire Avert shows great potential for kitchen fire prevention. It works in conjunction with any working smoke detector, regardless of brand. When the smoke detector beeps and if your stove is on, Fire Avert turns it off until the owner can address the situation. Then, a simple flip of the circuit breaker resets the Fire Avert and the stove is back on.
In Detroit the number of arson investigators who determine the cause of suspicious fires has dropped by nearly 60% since 2009. The arson unit is so understaffed that it only investigates one out of every five suspicious fires.
The Prince Rupert Fire Department read an article in FireWatch about FM Global’s grant program and successfully applied for a grant.
San Francisco’s fire chief has explicitly banned firefighters from using helmet-mounted video cameras. Chief Joanne Hayes-White said she issued the order because, “There comes a time that privacy of the individual is paramount, of greater importance than having a video,”.
Critics questioned the chief’s order and its timing due to the possibility of Fire Department liability.
The initial review of a pilot project by the Vancouver, Washington Fire Department suggests responding with SUVs rather than engines to low priority calls will keep engines available for priority calls and cost less money. The department spends $1.34 a mile to drive an SUV. It costs $7.47 a mile for an engine.
NIOSH’s Fire Fighter Fatality Investigation and Prevention Program investigated the line of duty death of a fire fighter struck and killed by backing fire apparatus at a rural brush and structure fire to identify contributing factors and make recommendations.