The CFAA Fire Alarm Technician’s Podcast

This week, we have a great episode with some good education on what are 2 stage systems, when are they used, and how they differ from other multi-stage systems or single stage systems. Thanks to Rick CHeung from the Vancouver Fire Department for coming on the podcast!Please refer to this guide from the City of Vancouver for their interpretation of this code. https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/vancouver-fire-bulletin-2024-001-2-stage-fire-alarms.pdfWe also had Aaron Lee on the podcast from the Codes and Standards Committee to discuss the code changes for the provinces of New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mike Ellis is the Above and Beyond AWard winner for Alberta for 2024. Listen to Mike's story and hear about his venture in safer battery testing with Volt Verify. www.voltverify.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With Aaron Lee Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Have you ever had the chance to really listen and get to know what the fire safety officers do in your town? Today we have a discussion with two members of the fire service in the Calgary area.Comments? Email us at marketing@cfaa.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we bring the Quebec chapter of the CFAA (the ACAI in French) to the podcast to introduce us to their 2024 winner of the Above and Beyond Award!The first part is in French and then I offer a summary translation at the end for those who didn't -quite- catch it all!Thanks to Raphael for taking the reigns and leading the interview in my SECOND language! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we talk to Suzanne Alfano (Executive Director of the CFAA) Stephen Ames (past President and currently working on the ISO certification project for the CFAA) about the contemplated certification to ISO standard 17024. We discuss the process and where we are so far in this journey. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to 2025! Here is our first episode of the year and we continue with interviews with the Above and Beyond Award Winners. Tony Hodder, Victoria Boltsis and Aliaksandr Shamshur share some of their experiences in fire alarm and why they think they were awarded this prize. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this Year-End episode, I have asked a few of my past guests and also Suzanne Alfano, Executive Director fo the CFAA and Jordan Klemick, Current President of the CFAA, to give us some year end summary of what we are doing at the executive committee level and what we have planned in 2025.I was also able to bring on Cathy and Mark, who have been on the podcast in the past and have rolls within chapters of the CFAA. I wish you all a Happy New Year and we will see you on the road somewhere in Canada or you wil continue to hear us on the podcast.Thanks for listening this year and for continunin to spread the word on the podcast to all of your fellow fire alarm technicians, engineers, managers and AHJ's.See you in 2025 with season 2 of the CFAA Fire Alarm Technician's Podcast! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the first of a multi-part series where we wil feature an interview with each of the award winners of our technician's committee Above and Beyond Awards. Trevor Ritchie (Drapeau Fire) was the winner for the Eastern Chapter of Ontario and Woody Gradin (Troy Life and Fire Safety) won for the Saskatchewan chapter. They give us their insights on what fires them up (pun intended...) about the industry and their job and what makes them go "Above and Beyond"! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part 2 of the podcast on a behind the scenes of the CFAA board of directors and committees. This episode focuses on the technicians and how you as a tech can get involved, what the levels of membership in the CFAA look like, and other topics of interest to our technician members. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we take a look 'behind the curtain of the CFAA Boards and Committees and see how the sausage is made! We will dive into each of the committees and see how they all work together to make the engine run for the CFAA. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode is with Pery Zerbinos and we discuss some of the best use cases for AI (currently) and how it is shaping our future in fire alarm reporting and getting our work done. This podcast may be at the highest risk of being obsolete in a year! We will see... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week is a long-ish episode and is more of a discussion with Mark and Tom on what we have been discovering as we have started working wiht the new standards. We focus on the topic of deficiencies and how some parts are open to some interpretation.Would you like to come on the podcast? Send me a line at marketing@cfaa.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode is with Randy Panesar from Durham College and we go over where we were, where we are, and where we are going in education for fire alarm systems in Canada. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Mark and I discuss some of the definitions and parameters around 'what is a deficiency?' We will have more episodes to come on this very important subject, as this affects all of your work as a fire alarm technician and how you report and comment on things that 'aren't right'.Thanks again Mark for joining! 20 episodes down!If you would like to join me on the podcast, send an email to marketing@cfaa.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we delve into the technical requirements of using Aspiration detection in an elevator shaft. With the new standards and the references to spot detectors being considered a deficiency if they are placed in elevator shafts (and other hard-to-access areas), we require better ways of doing fire detection in these spaces. Erik is one of the Field Application Engineers at Xtralis and provides great insight into ways that we can mitigate troubles and false alarm issues when using Aspiration detection in elevator shafts.Thank you Erik for your time and providing some great education for all of us. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode is all about door mag locks and how we test these devices as Fire Alarm Technicians. Ray was able to join us and go over this presentation that he did for the Central Ontario chapter earlier this year. Thanks for joining us, Ray! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we talk cable with Gabriel from Cerco Cable. He has a lot of information to share on the codes and types and cable that are used in Fire Alarm. Another great episode to use for reference for more knowledge on cabling. Gabriel can be contacted at:gsenechal@cercocable.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, we talk to Steven Forrester, a building code consultant from New Brunswick. We delve into the terminology of performance-based design and how it can affect your inspections as a tech and what to look for in a building that may have some type of design modification from the building codes.Contact Steven at sforrester@valfor.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we have a profile on a great outreach initiative for young women interested in the Fire Protection industry! Camp Molly is discussed and the history and where they are headed with this program.Thanks Victoria for coming on to discuss.www.campmolly.caFor more info on the history and story of Molly Williams:http://shemadehistory.com/molly-wiliams/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we have Frank on the podcast to discuss software tools to improve quoting speed and efficiency and general management of a fire alarm company using newer tools and AI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is on the very important subject of Battery Testing and the safety considerations when testing the batteries for our fire alarm systems. We also go over some of the code changes that may have already hit Western Canada, but are due to hit Ontario in January 2025.There is a related article battery testing safety that Aaron Lee from Atkins Realis in Ontario contributed in this edition of the CFAA Journal. It is a great read and adds to the discussion that Brett and I had. Please look to this link and go to the June 2024 edition. https://www.cfaa.ca/journalsAny comments? Please write to marketing@cfaa.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode was a great discussion with Brett Roach on some tips for troubleshooting and also some tips on dealing with your clients on site when there's a trouble on the fire alarm panel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode sees the return of Brent Early from Winnipeg Manitoba. Brent is very active in the local chapter of the Manitoba CFAA and brings an owner's representative-perspective to the topic of off-site monitoring connections. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We conclude our 3 part series in conversation with women in Fire Alarm. Recorded earlier this year in Winnipeg MB. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week's episode is all about the latest tools being used to make reporting and compliance so much easier for fire alarm technicians, AHJ's and End Users. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We continue our conversation from earlier this year in Winnipeg. A look into the experiences and perspectives of women in the fire alarm industry Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, we discuss the S1001 Standard for Integrated Systems Testing and some of the points to consider for Fire Alarm Techs as they start to be more involved in some aspects of these tests.Brett can be reached at WWW.BRDESIGNSASK.CA City Of regina Bulletin on S1001 https://www.regina.ca/export/sites/Regina.ca/bylaws-permits-licences/building-demolition/.galleries/pdfs/Advisory-CANULC-S1001-Integrated-Systems-Testing.pdfThe ULC Standard can be found here and can be viewed for FREE: https://www.shopulstandards.com/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=ULC1001_1_S_20110901And here is an additonal bulletin from the ULC on the suggestion of their ULC certified training program for S-1001:https://canada.ul.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2020/05/Certification-Bulletin-2020-08ENG-ULC-S1001.pdf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is a conversation with Brent Early, an owner's representative who deals specifically with the fire protection for that government of Manitoba's building and assets. Brent is active in CFAA Manitoba chapter and is involved in National committees also. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is a discussion with Mark Wilson on some of the changes to S536. Let us know what you think at marketing@cfaa.ca Do you want to get more involved in the CFAA? We need you! Please reach out at marketing@cfaa.ca and we can get you in touch with some of our committees to see what works best for you and your schedule. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is a panel discussion on the experiences of women in the fire alarm industry. This is part 1 of a discussion that took place in Winnipeg in Jan 2024. We will have part 2 of this discussion coming very soon. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, I have Derrick Bertrand , Vice President of the CFAA Manitoba Chapter. We were able to get together in Winnipeg and discuss the new position statement on ‘qualified technicians' and how it can be used across Canada.Here is the link to the official position statement:https://www.cfaa.ca/news/cfaa-position-statement-qualified-personnel-for-the-verification-inspection-repair-and-maintenance-of-fire-alarm-systems-in-canada Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode, Brett and I review the changes coming to the provinces as they adopt versions of the 2020 NBCC and associated ULC standards.This episode was recorded in early Dec 2023 and there have been some updates to code adoption. Saskatchewan quickly adopted the new NBCC 2020 effective Jan 1st 2024 and announced it a week after we had recorded this podcast. Other provinces are constantly updating their own date to adopt the code, so please keep checking with your AHJ.Brett can be reached at brdesignsask.caAs mentioned in the podcast, here are some links for viewing relevant codes and standards online for free (login required for UL):https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/ft/?id=515340b5-f4e0-4798-be69-692e4ec423e8https://www.shopulstandards.com/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=ULC536_6_S_20190801Your feedback is welcome at marketing@cfaa.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On the first episode of the show, Mark Wilson and I discuss the latest news in the Alberta chapter of the CFAA and we also summarize what we would like to see on this podcast in future episodes.Any comments? Please send to marketing@cfaa.ca Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.