Monday, February 25, 2008
Thursday, February 21, 2008
The problems with firefighting in Winter
Big news this week is a 6 alarm fire that happened just 3 blocks North West of my office.Here's a little lesson:
How Big Is A 6-Alarm Fire?
They're thankfully very rare but they do happen and they force crews to throw everything at them. Here's a look at the varying degrees of a fire.
1st Alarm
2 pumpers, 1 aerial truck, and 1 district chief
If it's downtown or involves a highrise building, a highrise truck is used. If it's a working fire an air supply truck, which provides breathing cylinders, and a heavy rescue squad are called.
2nd Alarm
5 pumpers, 2 aerials, 1 squad, 1 hazardous materials truck, 2 district chiefs, 1 platoon chief, 1 air supply vehicle, and 1 incident command vehicle.
3rd Alarm
8 pumpers, 3 aerials, 1 squad, 3 district chiefs, 1 platoon, 1 air lights, 1 hazard, 1 command vehicle, 1 division commander,
4th Alarm
11 pumpers, 4 aerials, 1 squad, 4 district chiefs, 1 platoon, 1 air supply vehicle, 1 hazardous materials truck, 1 command vehicle, 1 division commander
5th Alarm
14 pumpers, 5 aerials, 2 squads, 5 district chiefs, 1 platoon, 1 division commander, 1 command vehicles, 2 air supply trucks, 1 hazardous materials vehicles, other support staff if needed.
6th Alarm
17 pumpers, 6 aerials, 2 squads, 6 district chiefs, 1 platoon, 1 division commander, 1command vehicle, 2 air supply truck, 1 hazardous materials truck.
7th Alarm
20 pumpers, 7 aerials, 2 squads, 7 district chiefs, 1 platoon, 1 division commander, 1 command vehicle, 2 air supply trucks, 1 hazardous materials.
So now you know that it was a big deal, here's the problem. Water + Cold = Ice.
150 firefighters sprayed water onto the blaze, and in the cold temperatures, some of it came down as snow and the rest of it froze on power lines and the firefighters it landed on.
Once the fire was out, work began to pump out the water before it froze and turned the street into a skating rink.
Interestingly I heard on the radio this morning that one of the people saved from the flames hadn't been paying attention during fire drill. He was waving from a window as he could not get out the emergency exits. So when rescuers put the ladder up to his balcony, he handed them a laptop and then ran inside for his stereo!
He was dragged out and carried down the ladder.
I pity the fool!
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Toronto
I've been meaning to write something for a while now, but I keep thinking that not much has happened that's worth writing about.
Well, looking back it's been a pretty good start to the year.
Toronto for example has had quite a few things happen to it:
- The price of gas (petrol) has risen to $1.05 per litre and everybody is complaining!
- There's been 8 shooting related deaths in Toronto this year. Mostly in other neighbourhoods but there was one just one subway stop up from us!
- There's been 2 train derailments. One in the subway system out east which shut the line down for about 36 hours. Affected about a million people trying to get into work and home again.
- There's been a lot of snow, not record levels but February has been a cold snowy month. Just when we thought the winter was over and all the snow had melted, we had lots and lots come back down. Temps this week are back in the -6 region.
As for us, the last 9 days were pretty exciting. We purchased a city pass, which is a discount ticket book which gives entry into 7 of Toronto's attractions.
So last weekend we went to the Royal Ontario Museum and saw the dinosaurs.
After that we tried to go up the CN Tower but it was snowing and cloudy so not really worth it.
The next day we woke up early and the skies were blue. After a nice warm brunch at a local cafe, we headed into town, but the clouds had come back. So to pass the time we used the next ticket in our book and went to the Hockey Hall of Fame. A very cool place with memorabilia from Canada's rich hockey history. I even got to stand next to the coveted Stanley Cup. It has more history than the America's cup, and has been through more iterations too, the shape of the cup has changed about 4 times since it was first created.
After learning about hockey, we looked outside and the clouds had cleared. We fought our way through the freezing cold to the base of the CN Tower, only to be informed that it was too windy and the top section was closed! Hah, as Wellingtonians we laugh in the face of high winds, but were unable to do anything about today's problem.
The rest of the week passed in the way any other working week does, but we had the resolve to get back up the CN Tower.
So when saturday rolled around, the weather was beautiful and we headed into town.
After getting lost driving around the mall parking lot looking for a park (that's a whole other story) we caught the subway into town to take one last stab at getting up the CN Tower.
After a short wait in the lines, we were scanned for bombs and allowed up in the glass elevator.
It travelled vertically at 55kmh for 58 seconds to ascend to the first viewing level of the tower.
We had a quick look around the main level, jumped on the glass floor as you do, then went up to the sky pod.
This is what we came for; another hundred metres up and with a full and unobstructed view of Toronto. On a clear day you can see all the way to Niagara Falls.
Well, looking back it's been a pretty good start to the year.
Toronto for example has had quite a few things happen to it:
- The price of gas (petrol) has risen to $1.05 per litre and everybody is complaining!
- There's been 8 shooting related deaths in Toronto this year. Mostly in other neighbourhoods but there was one just one subway stop up from us!
- There's been 2 train derailments. One in the subway system out east which shut the line down for about 36 hours. Affected about a million people trying to get into work and home again.
- There's been a lot of snow, not record levels but February has been a cold snowy month. Just when we thought the winter was over and all the snow had melted, we had lots and lots come back down. Temps this week are back in the -6 region.
As for us, the last 9 days were pretty exciting. We purchased a city pass, which is a discount ticket book which gives entry into 7 of Toronto's attractions.
So last weekend we went to the Royal Ontario Museum and saw the dinosaurs.
After that we tried to go up the CN Tower but it was snowing and cloudy so not really worth it.
The next day we woke up early and the skies were blue. After a nice warm brunch at a local cafe, we headed into town, but the clouds had come back. So to pass the time we used the next ticket in our book and went to the Hockey Hall of Fame. A very cool place with memorabilia from Canada's rich hockey history. I even got to stand next to the coveted Stanley Cup. It has more history than the America's cup, and has been through more iterations too, the shape of the cup has changed about 4 times since it was first created.
After learning about hockey, we looked outside and the clouds had cleared. We fought our way through the freezing cold to the base of the CN Tower, only to be informed that it was too windy and the top section was closed! Hah, as Wellingtonians we laugh in the face of high winds, but were unable to do anything about today's problem.
The rest of the week passed in the way any other working week does, but we had the resolve to get back up the CN Tower.
So when saturday rolled around, the weather was beautiful and we headed into town.
After getting lost driving around the mall parking lot looking for a park (that's a whole other story) we caught the subway into town to take one last stab at getting up the CN Tower.
After a short wait in the lines, we were scanned for bombs and allowed up in the glass elevator.
It travelled vertically at 55kmh for 58 seconds to ascend to the first viewing level of the tower.
We had a quick look around the main level, jumped on the glass floor as you do, then went up to the sky pod.
This is what we came for; another hundred metres up and with a full and unobstructed view of Toronto. On a clear day you can see all the way to Niagara Falls.
Thursday, February 7, 2008
Snow snow snow
Now I know what you're going to say,
"Come on Chris, not another blog post about the weather".
But this is great. We had a really warm few weeks at the end of January - warm being relative; temps from 2 - 8 degrees some days. So that melted all the snow and took us just back to a cold green Toronto.
But since the weekend things have totally changed.
We had that big snowstorm while we were up snowboarding which dropped 30cm on the city, then last night the snow began again and it's put another 20cm on the city, making it the largest 24 hour snowfall in 30 years according to the TV.
That all comes on the back of people back home telling me that NZ's having their warmest Summer in 10 years. Hah, vote in the poll on the right of our blog and judge for yourself what is better - warm or cold.
I have to say, while the snow is very nice, when it melts it does cause a bit of a problem.
To help you summer ones understand what we're going through, imagine you're baking a really big cake. You need a lot of flour. You spill enough to leave a 30cm high pile on the floor.
You invite the rest of the neighbourhood to walk around in it for a while, then add in some water, salt and dirt.
Then have a few cars splash it around on your cupboard doors and all up your pants.
Then before it gets all sticky push it all up in a pile in front of your fridge so you have to step over it every time you want something.
That's nothing like what we're going through, but was fun to write =)
And the best bit, it's costing the city MILLIONS to clean it up. This snowfall from today is costing the city of Toronto $4 Million to clean up.
There's more predicted for the rest of the week, and still people continue to ride their bikes to work =)
"Come on Chris, not another blog post about the weather".
But this is great. We had a really warm few weeks at the end of January - warm being relative; temps from 2 - 8 degrees some days. So that melted all the snow and took us just back to a cold green Toronto.
But since the weekend things have totally changed.
We had that big snowstorm while we were up snowboarding which dropped 30cm on the city, then last night the snow began again and it's put another 20cm on the city, making it the largest 24 hour snowfall in 30 years according to the TV.
That all comes on the back of people back home telling me that NZ's having their warmest Summer in 10 years. Hah, vote in the poll on the right of our blog and judge for yourself what is better - warm or cold.
I have to say, while the snow is very nice, when it melts it does cause a bit of a problem.
To help you summer ones understand what we're going through, imagine you're baking a really big cake. You need a lot of flour. You spill enough to leave a 30cm high pile on the floor.
You invite the rest of the neighbourhood to walk around in it for a while, then add in some water, salt and dirt.
Then have a few cars splash it around on your cupboard doors and all up your pants.
Then before it gets all sticky push it all up in a pile in front of your fridge so you have to step over it every time you want something.
That's nothing like what we're going through, but was fun to write =)
And the best bit, it's costing the city MILLIONS to clean it up. This snowfall from today is costing the city of Toronto $4 Million to clean up.
There's more predicted for the rest of the week, and still people continue to ride their bikes to work =)
Monday, February 4, 2008
Skiing - in January
The winter does have something good, snow!
We travelled north of Toronto for an hour and a half to the Horseshoe Valley to stay at a very nice lodge with a very well stocked fridge.
With the temperatures dropping we ventured into town for some additional clothing, and hit the slopes ready to party!
The ski hill at Horseshoe valley was only a hill, and the lodge was nearly at the top. You actually had to drive down a hill to get the the base of the 'mountain'.
It was still a great day, and we have the bruises to prove it.
The next day we headed out to Mount St. Louis which was much more of a ski area, but the snow was coming down in buckets at a time. Driving was the most difficult I've ever had to, and after only 6 hours in the parking lot we had to dig the car out.
The storm then came in later on friday and pushed back our return trip home, but at least there was time for one more game of scrabble...
We travelled north of Toronto for an hour and a half to the Horseshoe Valley to stay at a very nice lodge with a very well stocked fridge.
With the temperatures dropping we ventured into town for some additional clothing, and hit the slopes ready to party!
The ski hill at Horseshoe valley was only a hill, and the lodge was nearly at the top. You actually had to drive down a hill to get the the base of the 'mountain'.
It was still a great day, and we have the bruises to prove it.
The next day we headed out to Mount St. Louis which was much more of a ski area, but the snow was coming down in buckets at a time. Driving was the most difficult I've ever had to, and after only 6 hours in the parking lot we had to dig the car out.
The storm then came in later on friday and pushed back our return trip home, but at least there was time for one more game of scrabble...
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