There are some really great blogs out there, and below are four of my favourites (in no particular order). I’ve ‘met’ each and everyone of these bloggers, and can let you know that they are not only great writers, but great people as well.

TB Ignite

Tanya Bettridge is one of my favourite people, and also happens to be a Public Education guru and Founder of TB Ignite Consulting. She is extremely engaging and I think could sell me on anything…which is a great trait to have when you are trying to get the public to be fire conscious. You can check out her blog here. Tanya also provides the following services (this is not a paid ad…I am just a fan):

• Pub Ed Audit: If your community has too many fatalities, injuries or just too many calls, it may be that your Public Education programming needs to change. Learn more…
• First Line Planning: Doing a Strategic or Master Plan that includes the three line of defense? Looking to save lives without breaking the budget in the long term? TB can help. Learn more…
• Seminars and Training: Whether you are organizing a conference or looking to give your suppression crew a Pub Ed edge, we’ve got some dynamic solutions. Learn more…

Meyer Fire

I came across Meyer Fire early in my Code career. I believe I googled ‘what is a standpipe’ or something of the sort…and up came one of Joe Meyer’s amazingly informative blog posts. And actually, as I wrote this post today, I got his newsletter to my inbox that noted he just celebrated 5 years of the website. Congrats!

I’ve ‘met’ with Joe a few times over the last couple of years, and am not only a fan of his online content, but with his overall attitude towards sharing knowledge. I actually read Abundance (referred to earlier in this post) because of a post Joe had written on it. He says it perfectly in his most recent post, “Fire Protection is just too important for us not to share knowledge. When you and I are able to do great work, we all win”.

Fire Protection is just too important for us not to share knowledge. When you and I are able to do great work, we all win

Although Joe resides south of the border, his blog, forum and toolkit are still very helpful for us Canadians, as our Codes reference NFPA 13 for sprinklers and NFPA 14 for standpipes, the same as the American Codes.

Along with his love of knowledge sharing, I’m also a huge fan of his ‘let’s save the world’ attitude. I could already sense it when I read his book review of Thirst in his Recommended Reads for Summer 2020 blog post:

“This is the first time I’ll mention it, but it won’t be the last. The long-term vision for going starting this website and going independent is to try and make the world a little better each day. Water doesn’t just fight fires, it’s the single most important need we have as humans. This book takes a very personal transformative story of a nightclub promoter turned major nonprofit co-founder. The more interesting and encouraging part of the story is about the positive impact that providing clean water to the developing world does. The long-term MeyerFire vision is pointed directly at the most fundamental need we have globally and we’re saving towards some exciting goals on this front. More to come, but as for the book it’s an impact read”

I was very pleased to read this morning that with the help of the Meyer Fire community, three different water projects have been funded to bring clean water to communities. And for that, thank you Joe.

The Building Code Blog

I’ve met Chris Campbell a few times along with Joe…and the two of them have collaborated on a few really great projects together. Chris runs The Building Code Blog, and although it focuses on the International Building Code (IBC) as opposed to Canadian Codes, it is a great resource to follow along to get another perspective. The IBC and Canadian Codes are based on much of the same fundamentals, and I always find info in his blog useful!

Halpert Life Safety

On Sharon Halpert’s ‘about’ page on her website, it’s noted she has a “contagious enthusiasm”, and I have to agree. Being passionate about Building Codes is one thing…but being passionate about fire stopping is next level…and Sharon is the level on top of next level! She is all sorts of fun, and super smart. She has a blog and YouTube Channel, and is full of great information. She is south of the border, but firestopping fundamentals are the same so it is still a great resource for increasing your knowledge!

We offer some online courses in the Kilo Lima Code School…so you may think it is odd that I’m about to direct you to our “competitors”. But we believe that things only get better with collaboration (read my previous post on it here), and maybe together we can make courses even better!

I have not personally taken any of the courses below so can’t provide an opinion..but feel free to explore!

• Vortex Fire has various courses on the Ontario Building Code
• EPIC Training has various Building Code courses, this one on the Alberta Building Code
• Muniak Enterprises has a Building Code Tutor Program for Part 3 of the National Building Code
• Halpert Life Safety (mentioned previously in bloggers) has some training on firestopping
• STI Firestop has The Firestop University. I have not taken the courses, but have met multiple people from their company and probably recommend the courses just based on their company culture
• For any American readers, the PE Roadmap is a join effort between previously mentioned bloggers Joe Meyer and Chris Campbell
• And last, but certainly not least, is Glenn Mathewson, President and Instructor of Building Code College. I’ve never taken any of his courses, but can guarantee you he is a passionate educator. He has an obsession with physical copies of old codes and has started using tik tok for Building Code education…a bit of an interesting combo!

In terms of Canadian Building Codes, there aren’t too many online calculators and tools…yet. Below is the list of what I’ve been able to find. If you have any to add to the list, please comment below!

• Vortex Fire has a Spatial Separations calculator on their site. I have not used it, but it appears to be pretty slick. This could save architects/AHJs/Codies TONS of time…so check it out! This type of work does not need to be done by hand anymore!
• Meyers Fire Toolkit is for fire protection design. As far as I know, it is based on NFPA 13, so I believe is still very useful for Canadian users. Joe, if you read this, please let me know if I’m mistaken!

The Building Code Blog also has some great tools for the International Building Code. Not applicable for Canadian users, but definitely worth checking out if you’re into developing tools and calculators.

If you’ve never heard of UpCodes, it is definitely work a look. It is for American Codes, but I’m sure something like this will be available for Canadian Codes soon enough. In fact, I recently found out about My Building Code, which has created something similar for the Ontario Building Code.

If this type of software is something you’d love to see for the NBC, BCBC, VBBL and NBC-AE, please contact us and we can update you on what we’ve got cooking!

Tap Reports seems to have some really great solutions that could be useful for fire inspections. I am not involved in the Fire Code and Inspections, but if you’ve used it and have a review, let us know!

Although podcasts have been around awhile, I still consider them a great innovation and a way to learn what is going on in our industry! I have had the pleasure of joining Gus Gagliardi from Fire Code Tech and Chris Cloney from Dust Safety Science to tell them about the Kilo Lima Code Community.

Villager Jim Burns has also put together two great posts on what podcasts are available:

• 16 Podcasts for Fire Protection and Life Safety Enthusiasts
• Podcasts for Fire Protection and Life Safety Enthusiasts – 2021 Edition

If you’ve followed along with us for a while, you’ll know that Jim Burns has been with us since the beginning, and is actually one of the main reasons I had the courage to start this pipe dream! Jim has been working on some online tools which we’ll let you in on soon, and he’ll also soon have his own section on the Kilo Lima website specific to his posts and innovations. So if you’re a Jim fan as well, stay tuned…Burns on Fire is about to make it’s debut!