Editor’s blog

May 9, 2011 – Back to blogging with some big news: FFIC Flashpoint scribe Peter Sells has been nominated for a KRW Award for best regularly featured column. The KRW Awards recognize excellence in Canadian magazine writing. We submitted three of Peter’s 2010 columns that generated interesting responses and feedback (if you know/read Peter you’ll know why!). You can see all Peter’s columns by going to the past issues section of our website. Peter and I will attend the KRW Awards dinner on June 7 in Toronto. (Peter will, of course, thank his fabulous editor in his acceptance speech!)

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Last week was busy with the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs conference (more below), which, for us, opened on Friday, April 29, with the annual Fire Fighting in Canada Open golf tournament. It was wet, cold and windy but our foursome – me, Grand Falls-Windsor (N.L.) Fire Chief Vince MacKenzie, Caledon Fire Chief Brad Bigrigg and Midland Fire Chief Kevin Foster – were well-prepared for the weather (as all fire-service types are). Best shot of the day – after my lovely 150-yard drive off the first tee (it was my first shot with my new driver and it was all down hill after that!) – was Bigrigg’s ricochet off the rocks: the ball landed between Brad’s feet, exactly where it started. Cracked us up! You can see photos of the golf tournament here and on our Fire Fighting in Canada Facebook fan page.

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As rookie OAFC conference participant and Upsala, Ont., Fire Chief Tim Beebe notes in his blog, the highlight of last week’s conference was the opportunity to network with like-minded professionals – in my case, Tim, who writes the Spontaneous Combustion column for Canadian Firefighter and EMS Quarterly, and FFIC columnists Vince MacKenzie and Peter Sells – hear some fabulous feedback about our cover stories (in particular The Napanee Tragedy and Shifting Arguments) and gather ideas for great feature stories that will benefit all our readers. You can see photos from the conference here.

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The OAFC conference kicked off the road-trip season. Up next is the 2011 International Conference for Fire & Rescue Executives in Toronto May 19-31, followed by FDIC Atlantic in beautiful Wolfville, N.S., June 1-3, the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Fire Services conference in Gander June 17-20, the Maritime Fire Chiefs Association show in Fredericton July 17-20 and the CAFC in Calgary in September. It’s a rigorous schedule but the story ideas generated from these conferences keep us going for the next 12 months so we can better serve our readers!

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Lastly, for today, there was considerable news in the last week that impacts the fire service:
• flooding in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and New Brunswick
• the fatality of an 18-month-old in a house fire in Hope, B.C. and a fatal fire in Saint John, N.B.
• a fire destroyed two of the first six-storey wood frame buildings approved under the revised B.C. building code (and opposed by the B.C. fire service)
• more arson fires in Edmonton

Let’s hope this week is not nearly as eventful.