Fire in the North

Over the past 2 weeks, Northeastern Ontario unwittingly became the subject of an experiment that showed us how social media can be beneficial in times of uncertainty and concern while also proving that social media can also give a voice to so many people on one specific issue that it becomes overwhelming for those trying to sort through all the “virtual noise” to find accurate and useful information.

In case you haven’t heard, it has been a difficult start to the “forest fire season” in Northeastern Ontario.  Two weeks ago, in the midst of a long weekend, two fires, one located on a stretch of highway just outside of Timmins and another to the west of the city, began to threaten the outskirts of town and parts of our “cottage country”.   People from throughout the region and beyond turned to Facebook in order to share and receive information on the fires, road closures, power outages, etc.  The fact of the matter is that several potential “official” sources for information were left scrambling and there was only a limited amount of information being released from official sources in the first several hours of the fires.  As a result, people turned to Facebook for information which led to a mish-mash of rumours, half truths, uneducated guesses and even some flat out lies by individuals simply trying to upset or worry others.

To their credit, some people including Mandy Tambeau decided to create Facebook pages dedicated to the fires.  I highlight Mandy not because I know her (we’ve never met) but because she made a point of trying to limit the conversation to confirmed information from trustworthy sources.  As I mentioned in a post on Mandy’s page at the time; if you received your information from “the guy who lives next to your Cousin Bob who has a friend who works with a guy that plays hockey with a guy who works for the MNR”, the accuracy of the information has probably gotten diluted along the way (…think of that game you played in grade school when the teacher would tell the first kid in the circle the word “tiger” and by the time it got around the circle the word the last student repeated to the teacher was “bubble gum”).  As such, there was much confusion over the first several hours as otherwise official sources of information such as the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ontario Provincial Police and the City of Timmins were left scrambling to get the proper communications officials in place over a long weekend.

At the end of it all, “Timmins Fire 9” which has now fallen under the category of “being held” has burned over 60,000 acres of forest.  Luckily, the fire crews have managed to protect all but a few sheds.  Many in the area are treating these fire crews as heroes but if you were asking many of those battling the fires they would tell you that they are simply doing the job they get paid to do. 

Once the fire has been completely extinguished, there will likely be de-briefing meetings where all aspects of the event will be reviewed.  Here are two points I hope they will cover:

1.      The MNR, the OPP and specifically the City of Timmins should develop a more pro-active social media presence for such situations.  The fact that we had City employees posting links on Facebook pages that had been set-up by members of the public shows that the City was ill-prepared to deal with an event like this in a digital world.  The Youtube videos of the press conferences were terrific but official information could have been shared as they happened via Facebook and Twitter as opposed to waiting twice a day for press conferences.  At last count, the Facebook page “Northern Fires” created Mandy Tambeau’s, who by the way is a seamstress by profession and not a communications or social media expert, has over 11,000 followers.

2.      The MNR, OPP, the City of Timmins and other relevant agencies also have to improve their internal communications.  People would hear/see something from an official source on Facebook or in the traditional media and when they would approach a “field staff” at a road block or another location, they would be told different information.  There were disconnects between “Headquarters” and the field staff and in this day and age where so many communications tools are available that is unacceptable.  

Random Fire thoughts:

·        One negative with social media during a time of “crisis” is the number of people that join a page and ask questions that have already been answered 26 times on that page without looking for answers to their question before posting.

·        Appalled at the idiots that would post random comments such as “THE CACHE CAMPGROUND BURNED TO THE GROUND” to worry people or create panic, especially at times when they know that information is sketchy at best and they know that people will latch onto any kind of information.  

·        Amazed at how people do not think things through in a time of “crisis”.  Questions such as “I live in downtown Timmins should I evacuate?”, “can I have a bonfire in my backyard?” and several other examples of people not thinking things through before posting their questions online just left me shaking my head.

·        Kudos to Len Gillis of the Timmins Times who published an erroneous report regarding the fire after receiving information from two sources that should have otherwise been credible and owned up to it immediately while making the correction.

·        I’m not going to be overly critical of the Daily Press headline “Journey into Hell” because the article itself was essentially a first person account of being near the actual fire.  That being said, the headline did raise many eyebrows in the community.  As you can imagine, there are many that can think of hundreds of current and/or past examples of what a “Journey into Hell” really is (…think Ground Zero on September 12^th, Hiroshima the day after the bomb, Haiti after the earthquake and parts of Indonesia the day after the Tsunami).  Sometimes hyperbole is good, sometimes it is misplaced, and hopefully the flack they took in some quarters will have been a learning exercise for the crew at the Daily Press.

·        I leave my last note to the firefighters, police, EMS workers, MNR and City officials that played a role in dealing with these fires.  Thank you for all your hard work!