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Laura King Chief Quan - has a nice ring to it!
Written by Laura King   

Wednesday, Sept. 1, 2010

Well, it’s officially official: Lyle Quan, the deputy chief in Guelph, Ont., who writes the Cornerstone and Leadership Forum columns for Fire Fighting in Canada in his spare time (ha!), becomes chief in Waterloo, Ont., on Sept. 20.

by Laura King | 09/01
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Laura King Post-vacation update . . .
Written by Laura King   
Monday, Aug. 30, 2010

I’m getting grief for not keeping up the blog since returning from vacation but I know you all know what it’s like – e-mails, deadlines, budgets . . . Anyway, here goes, beginning on a sad note.
by Laura King | 08/30
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Laura King A vacation update . . .
Written by Laura King   

Thursday, Aug. 19, 2010

A vacation update . . .

Yesterday was a work day despite being on vacation (sound familiar?).  It started with a visit to the Nova Scotia Firefighters School in beautiful Waverley, N.S., on lovely Powder Mill Lake. The word bucolic probably isn’t used often to describe fire school locations but it was a gorgeous August day under a vacation-blue sky and the setting was, well, bucolic.

by Laura King | 08/19
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Peter Sells Run silent, run deep
Written by Peter Sells   
August 11, 2010

I watched a great movie on TV earlier this week, U-571. It's a submarine drama involving espionage and combat, more or less a WW2 version of The Hunt for Red October. There are several very suspenseful scenes in which the sailors wait in silence, staring up as the sonar man reports the splashing of depth charges into the water above. When a scene like this is filmed well, you can feel the tension in your neck and shoulders as the actors brace themselves.

Boom. Far away and muffled. Boom! Closer, sharper and rattling the sub. BOOM! Now the sailors are being tossed around as pipes split, spewing water and fuel under pressure. How close will the next one be? Which drum of explosives has our name on it?



by Peter Sells | 08/12
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Laura King Media manouevers
Written by Laura King   

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2010

I just got back from Vaughan, The City Above Toronto. Well, that’s what it used to be called but some nasty politics after the 2007 municipal elections resulted in the slogan being manipulated into The City Above the Law and, well, now it’s just Vaughan, period – no slogan.

I digress. I was in Vaughan to interview Fire Chief Greg Senay, Deputy Chief Glenn Duncan and Emergency Planning Manager Sharon Walker about the tornado that bounced like a beach ball through Vaughan at supper time on Aug. 20, 2009. We’ll feature the tornado story in the September issue of Fire Fighting in Canada, which will focus on disaster management.

by Laura King | 08/05
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Laura King Catching up
Written by Laura King   

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Please excuse the absence – with travel to fire chiefs conferences, a few vacation days here and there and a rather heinous bout with the flu, it’s been tough to keep up.

Where to start? I was just finishing up a column I do for the VFIS newsletter (yes, we’re everywhere!) focusing on the highlights from the provincial chiefs association conferences over the spring and summer. It was an interesting exercise and one worth sharing to prove how hard the people who run these associations are working for the benefit of the fire service.

by Laura King | 08/03
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Peter Sells Why soft skills are so hard
Written by Peter Sells   
Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Why are soft skills so hard?

A typical job call for a fire chief or deputy fire chief’s position requires candidates to demonstrate some specific competencies such as

Knowledge of relevant legislation;

  • Labour relations experience;
  • Fire command and emergency management experience;
  • Eight to 10 years of “progressively responsible fire service experience” – (I love that one, since everyone in the fire service gains progressive responsibility it is meaningless in this context);
  • Post-secondary education in fire service administration, public administration or business administration;
  • Driver’s licence.
These are all taken from a current job call. I won’t dwell on how poorly written and/or irrelevant some of them are – that is a topic for another day (competency versus credential). But I will point out is what is missing.
by Peter Sells | 07/14
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Laura King More MFCA musings
Written by Laura King   

July 14, 2010

The galling story of a thief in Windsor, Ont., who is stealing brass fittings from apartment building fire hoses is even more astounding than the theft of belongings from volunteer firefighters’ vehicles in Bayfield, Ont. – while they were responding to a call.

Windsor police say that in the last six months more than 125 fittings have disappeared, presumably sold for scrap metal.

Makes you wonder what’s next.

You can read the Windsor story here and the Bayfield story here.

by Laura King | 07/14
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