Firefighter training needed, Joamie report says

[five_alarm]

NUNAVUT - The fire marshall, Gerald Pickett, is recommending more and better training for Nunavut firefighters in his investigation report into a fire that totally destroyed Iqaluit's Joamie School on July 4, 2003. "Based on interviews and observation of the incident, it is evident that limited knowledge, training and experience of standard fire ground operations precluded the establishment of an effective fire ground command," Pickett said in his report. He also said an evaluation of hamlet fire departments in Nunavut found that "all community fire departments failed to meet the minimum requirements of the National Fire Protection Association (industry standards) or the National Building and Fire Codes."

Source: Nunatsiaq News (http://www.firehall.com/refer.php?url=http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/briefs.html&linkid=604&parent=news(headlines)&)

[five_alarm]

NUNAVUT - Firefighters throughout Nunavut lack the leadership, training and equipment to do their job — saving people's lives and preventing millions of dollars in damages. Nunavut's fire marshal dropped the bombshell about the lacklustre state of firefighting and fire prevention in the territory last week, in his long-awaited report on the Joamie School inferno that consumed the $10-million building in Iqaluit last summer. Gerald Pickett, who's been working on the 25-page report since the elementary school burned to the ground on July 4 last year, said although many of his recommendations are already underway, every fire department in the territory fails to meet industry standards.

Source: nunatsiaq.com (http://www.firehall.com/refer.php?url=http://www.nunatsiaq.com/news/nunavut/40514_01.htm&linkid=615&parent=news(headlines)&)