Examining the Relationship Between Firefighter Injuries and Fatalities in the Built Environment: A case for reducing the risk to firefighters through adequate firefighting experience, working smoke alarms and sprinkler coverage in buildings

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The purpose of this study is to describe firefighter injuries and deaths in structure-related fires and to investigate the underlying connection between building properties, including fire safety measures, and their effects on the risk to firefighters responding to a fire event. For the first time, comprehensive fire-related data across Canada is available in the form … Read more

Illicit Drug Overdoses: Fire First Responders on the Front Line in Surrey and Vancouver, British Columbia

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In February 2016, Surrey Fire Service and Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services implemented their naloxone administration protocol in response to unprecedented numbers of opioid-related overdose calls. Both departments initiated training protocols to facilitate the necessary licensing of firefighters to administer intermuscular injections. The report titled “A Response to Illicit Drug Overdoses: Naloxone Administration in Surrey … Read more

Using Statistical and Machine Learning Approaches to Investigate the Factors Affecting Fire Incidents

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Fires can cause costly property damages and significant economic losses. They are also a major source of severe injury and loss of human life in our urban and rural communities. Historical data of fire incidents can reveal patterns of fire incidents. The national fire information database (NFID) contains historical data of fire incidents across the … Read more

Fire and Disasters Examining Fire Incidents During Major Disasters and Emergencies in Canada

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Canadian cities, towns, municipalities, regions, and provinces experience various types of major disaster and emergencies. Major disasters and emergencies are larger than everyday emergencies and can quickly overwhelm the first responders that are called to respond to them. Major disasters and emergencies may require the application of different performance standards and protocols. While fire departments … Read more

Developing a fire response test bench based on NFID

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Based on assumptions of completeness and consistency of fire incident data reported in the National Fire Information Database (NFID) for the 11‐year period from 2005 through 2015, the research team had proposed to develop, by leveraging relevant information in the NFID, a simulation engine that would provide fire departments across Canada with a tool for … Read more

The Role of Insurance in Reducing the Frequency and Severity of Fire Losses

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Fires, whether in urban areas, the wildland–urban interface (WUI) or on undeveloped land, create significant losses in Canada. The risk associated with fire varies across urbanization, land use, fire services, vegetation, weather, and other factors. From mega–cities to suburban neighbourhoods to remote communities, the risk associated with fire and the response to fire events differs … Read more

Home Cooking Structure Fires in Four Canadian Jurisdictions: Analyses of the National Fire Information Database, 2005 to 2014

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Home cooking structure fires are a significant, yet preventable, public-safety problem. Analyses of the National Fire Information Database (NFID), which collected and standardized roughly a decade of fire records from seven Canadian jurisdictions (including six provinces and the Canadian Armed Forces), revealed that cooking fires as a percentage of all “determined” home fires did not … Read more

Remote Sensing of Wildland Fire-induced Risk: Assessment Framework

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Wildland fire is one of the critical natural hazards that pose a significant threat to the communities located in the vicinity of forested/vegetated areas. In this report, our overall goal was to use very high spatial resolution (0.5-2.4m) satellite images to develop wildland fire-induced risk framework. We considered two extreme fire events, such as the … Read more

Fire Risk Assessment Model for Residential Buildings Using Bow-tie Method

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Ensuring the safety of citizens is a responsibility of the government. Fire incidents can create many adverse impacts on human, property, environment and reputation. In this research, a probabilistic model to assess the fire risk in residential buildings using the Bow-tie Method was developed. A user-friendly predictive tool called “DynamicFire” was developed based on the … Read more