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

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

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

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

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

The Epidemiology of Residential Fires Among Children and Youth in Canada

The purpose of this report is to detail the epidemiology and burden of residential fire injuries and deaths among Canadian children and youth, aged 0 to 19 years for the ten-year period, 2005-2015. For the first time, comprehensive fire data from across Canada is available in the National Firefighters Information Database. Using this novel dataset, … Read more

Fire and at risk populations in Canada: Analysis of the Canadian National Fire Information Database

This research examines the Canadian National Fire Information Database (NFID) to understand more about At Risk Populations (Area of Focus #5 as per the Request for Proposal documentation). The broad focus was to explore what we know about fire-related casualties in Canada and what the protective influences of working life safety systems are. The analysis … Read more

Firefighter Injuries Relative to Fire Response Characteristics

Firefighters perform physically demanding work while providing essential services to support the health and wellbeing of our communities. Firefighting tasks often expose firefighters to workplace factors that are associated with injury and illness. In particular, fire suppression activities have been linked with higher physical demands and higher injury rates. Although previous research has identified the … Read more

An Analysis of the Socio-Economic and Sociodemographic Contributors to Intimate Partner Violence in RCMP Jurisdictions in British Columbia

This report examines the rate and response to intimate partner violence in 33 RCMP jurisdictions in British Columbia (BC) between January and December 2016, with an analysis of trends between 2011 – 2015 . Several lines of inquiry were considered to better understand intimate partner violence. In particular, the contextual variances that differentiate not just … Read more

Determinants of Injury and Death in Canadian Firefighters: A Case for a National Firefighter Wellness Surveillance System

Occupational injury is a significant concern facing the Canadian workforce resulting in lost work time and income, medical expenses, compensation costs, and long-term health problems or disability. Previous research has shown health risks associated with employment as a firefighter, and exposure to a variety of injury-related hazards in the course of their occupation. Extreme temperatures, … Read more

A Literature Review on Illegal Firearms

According to the RCMP Firearms Operations and Enforcement Support, there were a total of 1,889 firearms offences in British Columbia in 2015, a decrease from 2,303 firearms offences in 2014 (RCMP Firearms Operations and Enforcement Support, 2016). This involved a wide range of offences, including robbery with a firearm, careless use of a firearm, the … Read more