To be precise, FF has not declared that he hasn't asked the sender for confirmation. In fact, it may be that confirmation of the cancellation is the reason FF is not interested in whether the talk goes ahead or not.
The only thing that appears to bother FF is that he seems to find the OP's claim of having emailed the Essex fire brigade so incredible that he confidently calls it a lie.
I have absolutely no idea what FF finds even slightly unlikely about it.
I wonder that myself. Especially given the long FF thread focusing on why the NYC fire department initially delayed releasing the 911 transcripts... ten years after they had released the 911 transcripts and there was nothing in them to support the conspiracy theory.
