Irony

At the beginning of the summer, I was listening to the news on the radio. True story.

Wait, the story gets better.

I was listening to the news on the radio, and the woman said something like this:

"The Ottawa fire department plans to hire x more firefighters. Ironically, this occurs just at the beginning of the summer when heat-waves are set to begin."

This leaves me with two questions. First, when are these heat-waves arriving? And secondly, and more importantly, how was it ironic that the fire department was hiring more firefighters at the beginning of the summer? It seems to me that there is no irony in hiring more firefighters at an opportune moment. In fact, it seems more fortuitous or, perhaps, far-sighted. It would be ironic if extra firefighters were hired because of imminent heat-waves and then no heatwaves arrived. Or it could be considered ironic if extra firefighters were hired, the entire fire department went on an illegal strike, and then there was a huge fire.

Whatever the case, the real irony here is that someone presumably went through the entire Canadian education system, got a university degree, and still does not understand what irony is.

Or perhaps it is merely a sign of our deteriorating language. Ironic, considering our daily saturation of words.