Latest news with #firefighting
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Automotive
- Khaleej Times
Sharjah: Man helps extinguish fire with own crane, honoured for heroic act
An Asian resident of Sharjah has been awarded for his heroic act of assisting in extinguishing a vehicle fire. Brigadier Yousef Obaid Al Shamsi, Director General of Sharjah Civil Defence Authority, honoured the man after he volunteered to use his private vehicle — a crane — to help extinguish the fire. The fire erupted in a waste transportation company's vehicle in one of the industrial areas of the emirate. As soon as he saw the blaze, he volunteered his own crane to be used with Civil Defence vehicles. His act helped reduce the chances of the fire spreading and facilitated the firefighters' task of controlling the fire in record time with no casualties. Brigadier Al Shamsi praised the resident's courage and quick action, stressing that his efforts reflect a societal awareness that contributes to supporting Civil Defence efforts and reducing losses.
The Review Geek
a day ago
- Entertainment
- The Review Geek
Smoke – Season 1 Episode 1 Recap & Review
Pilot Episode 1 of Smoke starts with a man named Dave Gudsen narrating about the indiscriminate way fire will target everybody and rip everything to shreds. Gudsen is a former firefighter, a man haunted by the ghosts of his past stemming from a housefire rescue gone horribly wrong. He's suffering from nightmares about the incident, which as we later find out, involves Gudsen staring into the abyss and only managing to escape from the building thanks to running to a mirror. Gudsen lives with his girlfriend, Ashley, and things are a little tentative between them. They walk on eggshells with each other, as they're living with teenager Emmett. Gudsen is Emmett's step-father and they don't have the best relationship with each other. Gudsen works in Arson Investigations, and when he shows up at his office, he finds Detective Michelle Calderone waiting for him. She's been sent by Metro PD to assist the department given there appears to be two serial arsonists on the prowl. There are no significant leads right now for either and this has been going on for over a year. Calderone doesn't know anything about arson but she does know a lot about crime scene analysis. She was in robbery before this (something we learn later on) and Gudsen believes she's looking to network and use this as a stepping stone in her career. Out in the field, Gudsen explains that there are four types of fire – natural, accidental, undetermined and incendiary. Both of these serial arsonists, appear to be fans of incendiary devices. The first arsonist has a habit of using a tool called D&C, which colloquially means Divide and Conquer. Essentially, he'll start one fire (most typically in the potato chip aisle of a shop) to bring the department out, with a specific time delay in each location to avoid detection. The guy clearly knows his way around the blind spots, and from the brief bits of CCTV footage we can see, he wears a rainproof jacket and a ball cap with no logo. The guy also limps with his right leg and seems to be a white male. Gudsen believes it could be an ex-fireman. The second arsonist has been dubbed Milk Jug and predominately operates in Trolley Town using a jug of gasoline, always at night, slipping under doors and setting them on fire. As Gudsen explains, nothing makes you feel more powerless than getting trapped in a fire. This leads us in nicely to take a look at an overworked, underappreciated fast food worker, Freddy Fasano. He's an outcast and lives alone, while also casually watching porn and drinking too. Freddy is clearly disillusioned with life and could well be one of our arsonists. More on him shortly! As for Michelle Calderone, she has a pretty dark past too. It turns out she was having an affair with a married man, Steven Burke. While that name means nothing, he's also the senior officer she's working with in the department. After one of their sessions, he admits he's made the jump and broken up with his wife. He's imploded his marriage and time with his kids to be with her properly. Michelle is not one for commitment and immediately pulls away, telling him he didn't need to do that for her. Steven is pissed and promises to make her life a 'continuous stream of losing'. This explains why she's been 'demoted' into the arsonist department in the arse-end of nowhere to investigate these cases. Unfortunately, it doesn't take long before another arsonist case lands in their laps. Someone sets light to a store and it's a complete mess. Investigating afterwards, Gudsen figures out the point of origin. The fire was started in three locations using lit cigarettes on a timer. The department are under pressure though and the department head, Harvey Englehart, explains that if they don't catch one of these arsonists (or both) then not only is Harvey going to be fired, but he'll take Dave Gudsen with him. The group get to work and Calderone immediately calls BS on the limp for our D&C arsonist. She believes it could well be an active firefighter and while Gudsen has been hitting a roadblock on this, Calderone thinks they can push it with her credentials so they're forced to open the files. Sifting through files one by one, the pair settle on someone called Arch Stanton. He has a bad attendance record, and with a brother on city council and a sister as comptroller, he has the perfect alibi. Dave and Michelle question him over his absences, but Arch is very prickly and defensive. In fact, he basically calls her a DEI hire and questions her motives. Unfortunately, they get nowhere with him. Scotty Bucyk is another name that crops up, given he too is absent on the days of the arsons. Dave and Michelle question him too, where Scotty proves he's definitely not the guy given he's an engineer and needs to drive people to the fires. Calderone leaves with egg on her face, so the pair decide to turn their attention to the Trolley Town arsonist instead. Dave deduces it may well be a fast food worker and as we now know for certain, this is Freddy. He stakes out local joints looking for his next targets and settles on those who look the happiest in life. Fire is Freddy's 'happy place' and he marvels at the ash and fire falling whenever he starts these housefires, seeing it as some form of cathartic euphoric release from his life. He watches these houses burn from a distance too. That night, Michelle finds Steven outside her place. He's a Captain now and taunts her a bit, but she more than holds her own with him. However, he's wearing an unmarked hat and a hoodie, so… could the captain be our other arsonist? The Episode Review Striking while the iron is hot, Apple TV+ roar out the gate with their latest Friday night scorcher, Smoke. Apple tends to either deliver hard misses or big hitters, and so far at least, Smoke appears to be the latter. The first episode gets off to a great start, introducing us to both Gudsen and Calderone, along with the two separate cases we're going to be following across this season. Although we know who the first serial arsonist is, given we get an introduction to Freddy and his life, the second is far more illusive. It would make sense that Freddy is our second arsonist, given we've seen him smoking, flicking cigarettes, wearing unmarked caps (like at the end) and having the right prestige and cover to fly under the radar… but could he be a red herring I wonder? With another episode released today though, we'll have to wait and see where this one goes next but so far, this is looking to be quite a promising crime drama. Next Episode Expect A Full Season Write-Up When This Season Concludes!
CBC
2 days ago
- Climate
- CBC
Manitoba lifting provincial travel, burn bans as recent rains continue to dampen wildfires
Manitoba will lift provincial travel and burn restrictions on Friday as rains continue to help firefighting efforts, although municipalities may continue to impose restrictions. "We have been getting some rain in some key areas," including the city of Flin Flon and the town of The Pas in northwestern Manitoba, according to Kristin Hayward, an assistant deputy minister with the Conservation Officer Service and Manitoba Wildfire Service. "What that's allowed us to do is to make some really good progress on those fires," Hayward said at a news conference Thursday. Provincial travel and burn restrictions are to be lifted at 8 a.m. CT Friday, with the exception of backcountry travel within the boundaries of an active fire, which will need a permit from the province, Hayward said. Municipalities may also choose to continue their own fire bans, Hayward said, and anyone wanting to know if they're affected should check with local officials. There were 18 active wildfires across Manitoba as of Thursday, Hayward said. More than 911,000 hectares in the province have burned so far. There are 13 communities still under a local state of emergency, said Christine Stevens, an assistant deputy minister with Manitoba's Emergency Management Organization. The communities of Tataskweyak Cree Nation, Mathias Colomb Cree Nation and Wallace Lake, along with parts of Nopiming Provincial Park, are still under evacuation orders, Stevens said at Thursday's news conference. "That means that approximately 6,500 Manitobans remain out of their homes at this time," she said. On Monday, Premier Wab Kinew announced the end to the provincewide state of emergency issued May 28, thanks in part to favourable weather conditions, including precipitation, that have slowed down some of the fast-moving wildfires. The wildfires forced thousands to flee rural and northern communities. The northwestern Manitoba wildfires led to mandatory evacuation orders being issued May 26 and 27 for Sherridon and Lynn Lake, respectively. Sherridon residents were able to go home on June 14, while Lynn Lake residents followed on June 20. Roughly 4,800 evacuees from the city of Flin Flon, who were ordered to leave on May 28, began to return home on Wednesday. Stevens said evacuees staying in Ontario have been gradually returning to Manitoba over the last week. The Leila Avenue evacuation centre in Winnipeg has stopped operating as a congregate shelter, but remains open as a reception centre, she said. Congregate shelters in Thompson and Nelson House have also closed. About 70 evacuees are still at a shelter in Sagkeeng First Nation, said Stevens, but there are hotel rooms available for those wishing to move.
BBC News
2 days ago
- Automotive
- BBC News
Dorset fire service gets new vehicle to tackle heath fires
A fire service has invested nearly half a million pounds in a new off-road multi-functional vehicle to help tackle heath and Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS) already has an Unimog, based at Wareham Fire Station, which is now 16 years old.A project to replace it started about three years ago and the new one arrived in April. The service said that after "extensive testing and driver training", it was now operationally available and had already been used at three wildfires over the weekend. The Unimog has a capacity of 4,500 litres of water and 162 litres of also has front, rear and roof-mounted monitors that can direct large quantities of water or foam at a said the off-road capability of the new machine had been "significantly enhanced".It now features upgraded tyres, the addition of a low-ratio gear box and the ability to set the tyre pressures to the type of terrain. Assistant Chief Fire Officer Darren Langdown said the Unimog was able to respond to flooding and thatch fires, as well as large fires in the open."We have seen a significant increase in the number of wildfires across our service area over the past five years, and the Unimog has been an invaluable asset to tackling these," he added the new features would also "enhance our firefighting capabilities" in heaths and other hard-to-reach rural said the new Unimog would be on show on Thursday at Wareham Fire Station. You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X (Twitter), or Instagram.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
BYU student helps enhance wind tracking tool for wildfires
PROVO, Utah () — A (BYU) student has used machine learning and math to improve a key tool that firefighters rely on while they are out in the field battling wildfires. 'I think it's really cool when you study math, you end up working on problems that you never would have really guessed, like I have done things in so many different fields,' Jane Housley is a BYU mathematics graduate student and a wildfire modeling researcher. Housley recently wrapped up her master thesis in partnership with the and focused on improving WindNinja. is used by fire crews and analysts to predict how wind will move through terrain during a fire. It is a simulation tool created by the Missoula Fire Sciences lab. According to the , the behavior of wildland fires and the dispersion of smoke from these fires depends, in part, on ambient and fire-induced winds that work to spread fires across the landscape and mix fire emissions into the atmosphere. Housley's study focused on improving the device to model what's called a cavity zone. That's the area directly behind a mountain or ridge where wind tends to swirl backward and create a whirlpool-like motion. This movement can dramatically shift how and where a fire spreads. Housley helped improve two key areas of the WindNinja, the mass-conserving solver and the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver. The first one is fast but less accurate but on the other hand, CFD is more precise but much slower. 'This is the first time that we've taken machine learning and AI and applied it to the field of wildfire modeling. The real way to study this was to try and understand the physics and mechanics of how things work,' Housley told . Through her research, Housley trained the neural network to learn patterns of error in the mass-conserving solver, using the CFD solver accuracy as the goal. The device could now be able to recognize wind patterns the way facial recognition spots a familiar face. Housley said she still remembers the feeling of excitement when she saw how accurate and efficient her new model was. 'Once I had the network built and plugged in the data and ran the simulation, the results were really good. I thought, 'I must be doing something wrong,'' Housley said in a press release. 'I combed through every single line of code and found that it was working correctly. I was really excited.' Collaborating with firefighters and scientists at the Missoula Fire Sciences Lab will be an experience that Housley says she will cherish forever. Alexa Mcfadden contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
