MESC Burning Issues 149421.indd - Office of the Fire Commissioner

BURNING ISSUESNEWS AND VIEWS OF MANITFirefighters Burn FundHopefully, you’ve enjoyed a peaceful time withfamily and friends through the Holiday season.Unfortunately, fire and tragedy did not take abreak, as several properties were damaged or destroyed;there were injuries, and some lives were lost.This just reinforces the fact that we have to continue ourefforts to remove those hazards that have the potential tostart or contribute to a fire, and to teach the public (bothadults and children) how to recognize those dangers, andwhat they should do about them.The Firefighters Burn Fund created a limited fund tohelp Fire Departments address fire and burn preventioninitiatives within their Communities. Each Departmentmakes their own determination as to what is neededand sends a letter of application. We have funded somerequests from $500 to $1,000, while offering seed moneyof up to $5,000 for a couple of projects that will be sharedwithin a Mutual Aid District. Just over a half dozenDepartments have come forward with requests. Can wehelp you?Juvenile fire setting is a problem in several communities,and we are offering 5 departments $1,000 each to haveone of their members participate in a formal trainingprogram to enhance their skills in this area. Additionally,we were pleased to fund the printing costs of the FireSetting and Youth activity booklet which is available toyou through the Office of the Fire Commissioner.We recently received 15,000 copies of the 3rd printingof our own Firefighters Burn Fund Activity Book. Thishas proven to be a popular teaching aid for school agedchildren. One copy of each was recently included withthe mail out of our 2006 Heat Seekers Raffle winnerslist to 160 different Fire Departments. This booklet isavailable free of charge to your department. Phone(204)222 -1574, or send a note, and tell us how many youcan use. They should be issued to children who can readand write for the best opportunity for them to learn fromit.Additionally, we still have some electrical outlet plugcaps courtesy of Manitoba Hydro as well as a number ofbath water thermometers for moms or babysitters to useto assist them in determining the temperature of the bathwater before baby is placed in the tub. These are alsoavailable free of charge to your department.We have had a number of requests for the loan ofa Sparky the Fire Dog costume. The few that areavailable through the Office of the Fire Commissionerare sometimes not enough particularly when a numberof communities plan their festivals and other activitiesaround the same dates. Two costumes are on order,and one of them will be donated to the ThompsonFire Department. That outfit will be shared withDepartments North of the 53rd parallel. The secondoutfit will remain with the Burn Fund until/unless weassign it to another department to manage.We appreciate the support that we receive from theManitoba Fire Service. Without it, we would not beable to fund those commitments that have contributedto improvements in the care for burn patients. Throughthose things noted above, we hope to show ourappreciation for that support.Take care out there.Contributed by Martin Johnson, Fire Fighters Burn FundMANITOBAEmergency Services ConferenceOctober 11-13, 2007Office of the Fire Commissionerwww.firecomm.gov.mb.ca(204) 726-6855 1-888-253-14886