# Copyright, Licence and Legal Notices

> Fire Service Safety Management System, version 0.3.3 (2026-10-25). The Human Factor. Document FSSMS-HQ-00a.
>
> Canonical: https://thehumanfactor.ca/library/fire-service-safety/copyright-licence-and-legal-notices
>
> Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 with the Adopting Agency Grant (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)
>
> General information only, not legal, medical or other professional advice. Verify every requirement against the current official text of the law, standards and manufacturer instructions that apply to you. Obtain your own legal review and consult your joint health and safety committee before adopting anything. You adopt, adapt, implement and rely on this material entirely at your own risk and on your own responsibility. Full terms: Terms of Use, thehumanfactor.ca.

These terms are in force from 24 October 2026. They apply to the Fire Service Safety Management System in every format and to its pages on thehumanfactor.ca, and they are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable there (section 7.14). The version shown here is the current one; earlier versions apply to copies issued under them.

## 1. Copyright

Fire Service Safety Management System, edition 0.3 (2026).

**Owner and licensor.** **The Human Factor** and **thehumanfactor.ca** are trade names of **HazReady Corporation**, a corporation incorporated under the *Canada Business Corporations Act*. HazReady Corporation owns the copyright in this work and is its licensor. Every copyright notice in this book that reads “© 2026 The Human Factor” is a notice given on behalf of HazReady Corporation, and every reference in this book to The Human Factor is a reference to HazReady Corporation carrying on business under that name. This page is the only place in the book where the corporation is named; it governs the meaning of every other notice.

## 2. Licence

This work is licensed under the **Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License** (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). The full legal text is at <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/legalcode>. The licence text governs; the summary below is for convenience only.

Under the licence, anyone may copy and share this work in any medium or format, and may adapt it, provided they:

- **Attribute**: give appropriate credit, provide a link to the licence, and indicate if changes were made (see section 4);
- **NonCommercial**: do not use the material primarily for commercial advantage or monetary compensation;
- **ShareAlike**: if they share an adaptation, share it under the same licence.

The licence is irrevocable for anyone who receives the work under it while they comply with its terms. HazReady Corporation may also offer the work under other terms, including commercial licences, which are separate from the Creative Commons licence.

## 3. Adopting Agency Grant (additional permission)

This grant is an **additional permission** offered by HazReady Corporation alongside the Creative Commons licence. It does not change the Creative Commons licence, which continues to apply to everyone else and to every use not covered here.

**3.1 Who may rely on it.** Any fire service, fire and emergency service, or fire department in Canada or elsewhere that is operated by or for a municipality, regional government, First Nation, Indigenous government, provincial, territorial or federal government, public authority or registered not-for-profit fire company (an **Adopting Agency**), together with its governing council or board and its administration.

**3.2 What it permits.** An Adopting Agency may, without charge and for as long as it operates:

1.  adopt any part of this work as its own policy, program, procedure, form, checklist or training material;
2.  adapt, edit, localize, combine, translate and reformat it for its own operations and jurisdiction;
3.  publish its adopted and adapted documents as its own, including on public websites and in public council records, under whatever terms it applies to its own documents, without applying the Creative Commons ShareAlike condition to them;
4.  share its adopted and adapted documents free of charge with other Adopting Agencies, including mutual aid and automatic aid partners;
5.  allow its employees, members, volunteers, joint occupational health and safety committee, bargaining agents and contractors acting on its behalf to use the work for the Adopting Agency’s own purposes.

**3.3 Conditions.** An Adopting Agency:

1.  places the attribution statement in section 4.2 once, in the front matter or index of its adopted manual, rather than on every page;
2.  does not sell, license for a fee, or otherwise commercially exploit this work or its adaptations, and does not permit a contractor to use the work for any client other than the Adopting Agency;
3.  does not state or imply that HazReady Corporation or The Human Factor has reviewed, approved, endorsed or certified the Adopting Agency’s program, unless that is true and agreed in writing;
4.  remains solely responsible for its own legal review, joint committee consultation, approval and implementation of anything it adopts (section 6).

**3.4 What it does not cover.** Commercial use by anyone else, including consultants, training providers, software vendors and publishers, needs a separate written licence from HazReady Corporation. The grant does not license trade names, trademarks or logos (section 5) or any third-party material (section 5).

**3.5 Term and governing law.** The grant is perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive and non-transferable, except to a successor public body that assumes the Adopting Agency’s fire service. It ends for an Adopting Agency that breaches section 3.3 and does not cure the breach within 30 days of becoming aware of it. It is governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable there.

## 4. How to attribute

**4.1 Unchanged copies.**

> *Fire Service Safety Management System*, edition 0.3. © 2026 The Human Factor, thehumanfactor.ca. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/>

**4.2 Adopted or adapted documents.**

> Portions of this manual are adapted from the *Fire Service Safety Management System*, © 2026 The Human Factor, thehumanfactor.ca, used under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 and the Adopting Agency Grant. Changes were made by {{Department}}.

HazReady Corporation, as licensor, designates **The Human Factor** as the name to be credited, as the Creative Commons licence permits a licensor to do. Attribution in either form above satisfies the licence and the grant.

## 5. Trademarks and third-party material

- **Trade names and marks.** The Human Factor, thehumanfactor.ca, the logo and the name of this system are not licensed under the Creative Commons licence or the Adopting Agency Grant. They may be used only to give the attribution in section 4, and never to suggest endorsement.
- **Standards.** This work cites, maps and paraphrases standards published by the National Fire Protection Association, CSA Group, the International Organization for Standardization, the Center for Public Safety Excellence and others. It does not reproduce their text. Those standards remain the property of their publishers, and an Adopting Agency must obtain the standards it adopts. The names of standards bodies and their documents are trademarks of their owners, used here only to identify the documents cited.
- **Legislation.** References to statutes and regulations are summaries for orientation. The official text governs.
- **Other third-party material.** Any third-party material in this work is identified where it appears and is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and the Adopting Agency Grant.

## 6. Disclaimer: the short form

> **Warning: Adoption without implementation increases legal exposure**
>
> Adopting safety procedures without providing the training, equipment, supervision, verification and resources needed to perform them as written increases municipal and command liability in a regulatory investigation or a fatality inquiry. A safety management system exists only when line ownership, continuous verification and closed-loop corrective action are actually practised.

The following short form appears on the website footer, in the download dialog and on the first page of every file. The Terms of Use in section 7 are the full terms.

> **General information only, not legal, medical or other professional advice.** Verify every requirement against the current official text of the law, standards and manufacturer instructions that apply to you. Obtain your own legal review and consult your joint health and safety committee before adopting anything. You adopt, adapt, implement and rely on this material entirely at your own risk and on your own responsibility. Full terms: Terms of Use, thehumanfactor.ca.

## 7. Terms of Use

**7.1 Agreement.** These Terms of Use are an agreement between you and HazReady Corporation, carrying on business as The Human Factor (“The Human Factor”, “we”, “us”). They apply when you read the System on thehumanfactor.ca, download any file, create a reader account, subscribe, or adopt, adapt or rely on any part of the System. You accept them by ticking “I agree to the Terms of Use” before your first download or purchase, and by continuing to use the System after that. If you act for an organization, you confirm that you may bind it, and “you” includes that organization. If you do not agree, do not download, subscribe to, adopt or rely on the System.

**7.2 How these terms fit with the licence.** The Creative Commons licence and the Adopting Agency Grant set out what you may do with the text: copy, share and adapt it. These terms set out the basis on which the System is provided and on which you may rely on it. Nothing in these terms takes away any permission the licence or the grant gives you; if these terms and the licence conflict about what you may copy, share or adapt, the licence governs. On everything else, including the nature of the System, your responsibilities, warranties, liability, accounts and subscriptions, these terms govern, in addition to the disclaimer in section 5 of the Creative Commons licence.

**7.3 What the System is, and what it is not.** The System is a general framework and general information for fire services and the people who work in and with them. It is not:

1.  legal advice, or medical, engineering, occupational hygiene or other professional advice;
2.  a statement of the law of any jurisdiction, or a substitute for the official text of statutes, regulations, standards, codes or collective agreements;
3.  a substitute for qualified training, competent supervision, manufacturers’ instructions, the judgment of incident commanders and officers, or the advice of your own counsel, physician and health and safety professionals;
4.  an accreditation, certification, audit opinion or confirmation that you comply with any law or standard;
5.  a complete statement of every hazard or control relevant to any department, task or incident.

No professional, advisory, fiduciary or consulting relationship arises from reading, downloading, subscribing to or adopting the System. Consulting services, where we provide them, are governed only by a separate written agreement.

**7.4 Your responsibilities.** If you use, adopt or adapt any part of the System, you alone are responsible for:

1.  verifying every requirement, number, threshold, timeline and citation against the current official text of the law, standards and manufacturers’ instructions that apply to you;
2.  obtaining your own legal review and, where relevant, medical, engineering and labour relations advice;
3.  consulting your joint occupational health and safety committee or representative, and your bargaining agents, as the law and your agreements require;
4.  adapting the System to your own operations, hazards, staffing, equipment, collective agreements and jurisdiction;
5.  approving anything you adopt through your own governance;
6.  providing the training, equipment, supervision, resources, verification and enforcement needed to carry out what you adopt as written;
7.  keeping what you adopt current; and
8.  every decision you make, and every action you take or do not take, in reliance on the System.

**7.5 Assumption of risk.** Firefighting, rescue and emergency response are dangerous, and no program, policy or procedure removes that danger. You use, adopt, adapt, implement and rely on the System at your own risk, and you accept all risks arising from that use, including risks arising from errors, omissions or out-of-date content, and from adopting procedures without implementing them.

**7.6 No warranty.** To the fullest extent permitted by law, the System, the website, every file, every update and every alert are provided as is and as available, without representations, warranties or conditions of any kind, express or implied, including any as to accuracy, completeness, currency, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantable or acceptable quality, compliance with any law or standard, and non-infringement. Laws and standards change, and the System may contain errors. We do not promise to correct, update or continue to make available any part of it.

**7.7 Limitation of liability.** To the fullest extent permitted by law:

1.  we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill or opportunity, or for fines, penalties, orders or the costs of any investigation, inquiry or inquest, arising out of or relating to the System, these terms, any file, update or alert, or any adoption, adaptation, implementation or failure to implement, however caused and on any theory of liability, including negligence, even if we were told such damages were possible;
2.  our total liability for all claims arising out of or relating to the System or these terms is limited to the greater of the amount you paid us for the System in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the first claim and one hundred Canadian dollars; and
3.  these limits apply even if a limited remedy fails of its essential purpose. They are an essential basis of the bargain: the System is offered free, or at a low price, because of them.

Nothing in these terms excludes or limits any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, or any right a consumer has that cannot be waived under the law where the consumer lives.

**7.8 Indemnity by organizations.** If you use, adopt or implement the System for or on behalf of an organization, the organization will defend, indemnify and hold harmless HazReady Corporation and its directors, officers, employees, contractors and agents from and against all claims, losses, damages, fines, penalties, costs and expenses, including reasonable legal fees, brought or incurred by any third party and arising out of or relating to the organization’s adoption, adaptation, implementation or failure to implement any part of the System, or its breach of these terms.

**7.9 No reliance by third parties.** The System is provided to you, not to your members, employees, volunteers, patients, the public or anyone else. Documents an Adopting Agency adopts become its own documents, and people who rely on them rely on the agency, not on The Human Factor. We owe no duty of care to any third party in connection with the System.

**7.10 Updates and alerts.** Version alerts, change notices and update emails are a convenience. They are not a legal monitoring service; they may be late, incomplete or wrong; and the absence of an alert does not mean nothing has changed. You remain responsible for monitoring the law and standards that apply to you.

**7.11 Accounts and fair use of the website.** Give accurate information, keep your sign-in links private, and tell us if you think your account has been misused. Do not use automated means to exceed download limits, overload or disrupt the website, impersonate anyone, or reach accounts or data that are not yours. We may suspend access for misuse. This section governs your use of the website and its services; it does not restrict what the Creative Commons licence lets you do with text you have lawfully received.

**7.12 Privacy.** We collect the information described in the website’s privacy notice to deliver downloads, mark files with the name and organization you give us, manage your account and subscription, and, only if you agree, send you briefings and update alerts. You can withdraw consent to emails at any time.

**7.13 Changes to these terms.** We may change these terms by posting a new version with its effective date. A change applies to use after that date. For subscribers, a material change takes effect at the next renewal unless you agree to it sooner, and we will email you at least 30 days before it applies.

**7.14 Governing law and disputes.** These terms are governed by the laws of the Province of Ontario and the federal laws of Canada applicable there. The courts of Ontario have non-exclusive jurisdiction. A consumer keeps any rights, and any right to bring proceedings where they live, that the law of their province or territory does not allow to be waived.

**7.15 General.** If any part of these terms is unenforceable, the rest continues, and the unenforceable part applies to the greatest extent the law allows. Our not enforcing a term is not a waiver of it. These terms, the Creative Commons licence, the Adopting Agency Grant, the subscription terms in section 8 and the privacy notice are the whole agreement about the System. Sections 7.3 to 7.10 and 7.14 survive the end of any account or subscription. We may assign these terms to a successor to the System.

## 8. Subscription terms

**8.1 What a subscription includes.** For the subscription term: unlimited downloads of every chapter, module and edition in every format we offer; the complete edition; the editable Word and Excel adoption files; every new version published during the term; and version and change alerts for the documents you choose to follow. Reading the System online remains free to everyone. Price: {{Subscription price}} CAD per year, plus applicable tax, as shown at checkout.

**8.2 Term, renewal and cancellation.** A subscription runs for one year from purchase. A subscription paid by card renews automatically for further one-year terms at the then-current price unless you cancel. We email you reminders before each renewal, 75 days and 45 days ahead, with the price and a one-click way to cancel. You can cancel at any time from your account; cancelling stops the next renewal and your access continues to the end of the term you paid for. An organization may instead pay by invoice for a fixed one-year term that does not renew automatically.

**8.3 Refunds.** You may ask for a full refund within 30 days of a first purchase or a renewal. After that, the current term is not refundable except where the law requires.

**8.4 Taxes and receipts.** Prices exclude GST, HST and QST, which are added at checkout according to your province or territory where they apply. Receipts are issued by HazReady Corporation.

**8.5 Price changes.** We will email you at least 30 days before a price change applies to your next renewal.

**8.6 Teams.** A team subscription covers the number of named people it states. An organization may reassign a seat when someone leaves.

**8.7 When a subscription ends.** Files you downloaded remain yours to use under the Creative Commons licence and the Adopting Agency Grant. Unlimited downloads, new versions and alerts stop. Reading the System online stays free.

**8.8 Volunteer departments.** We provide the Department Edition free of charge to all-volunteer fire departments and to departments of 30 or fewer members, on request, confirmed by the fire chief each year, on these terms.

**8.9 Payment does not change the disclaimers.** Paying for a subscription buys convenience, completeness, editable files, updates and alerts. It does not create any warranty, any professional or advisory relationship, or any undertaking beyond those in this section, and sections 7.3 to 7.10 apply in full to everything a subscription includes.

**8.10 Commercial use.** A subscription is for the subscriber’s own use and, for a Department Edition, the department’s. Using the material in paid work for others (consulting, training, software or publishing) needs a separate commercial licence under section 3.4.

## 9. Independence

The Human Factor is an independent practice. This work is not endorsed by, and is not a product of, the National Fire Protection Association, CSA Group, the International Organization for Standardization, the Center for Public Safety Excellence, the Commission on Fire Accreditation International, any workers’ compensation board or any regulator. Use of this work does not confer accreditation, certification or regulatory compliance.

## 10. Contact

Licensing, commercial use, permissions and subscriptions: The Human Factor, thehumanfactor.ca.
