“The Rules Were Written for a Different Fire”
How fire changed in thirty years, and what that asks of the rest of us

In the 1990s, Michael Wrinch fought wildfires for the BC Forest Service. He was trained on a set of rules built from hard experience: how to read a fire, safety practices on the line, and when to get out. Those rules worked. On one fire, they saved his crew.

Thirty years later, the fire is not the same. Seasons run longer, fires burn hotter and move faster, and crews are asked to do things nobody trained for in 1995. The doctrine has changed. The tactics have changed. What the public needs to understand about fire has changed with them.

Michael opens with the story of that burnover, then turns to what today’s fire season actually looks like and asks the question the day is really about. What is your organization still doing because it worked, and when did you last check whether the conditions had moved underneath it?

The rules were not wrong. They were written for a different fire. This session is about how leaders notice that in time.

BIO: Michael Wrinch fought wildfires for the BC Forest Service from 1992 to 1997. He has spent thirty years since working on systems where failure isn’t an option. He is the President of Hedgehog Technologies, an electrical and mechanical engineering firm he started in 2001 and has built into a national practice spanning amusement ride controls, rail and transit safety assurance, marine and defence systems, and remote community microgrids. It is work that includes safety-rated roller coaster controls for Universal Studios, rescue submarines for the U.S. Navy, and rail safety assurance programs. He is a certified functional safety engineer, a Past President of Engineers Canada and of Engineers and Geoscientists BC, a former director of Technical Safety BC, an Adjunct Professor at UBC, and the 2026 recipient of Electricity Human Resources Canada’s Agent of Change Award. He holds a PhD in power systems from UBC and lives in North Vancouver.