Winnipeg firefighter ‘availability’ time nearly 30% higher than industry standard

WINNIPEG — Deadly blazes and burning homes are just a few of the calls firefighters respond to.

As recently as July, the president of Winnipeg’s firefighters union said a lack of staff made it impossible to meet inspection recommendations.

RELATED: Fire department to inspect more rooming houses in Winnipeg

“Because of a lack of staff we can not get to all the rooming houses every year,” wrote union president Alex Forrest on July 7.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Because of a lack of staff we can not get to all the rooming houses every year," wrote union president Alex Forrest on July 7.

It’s what triggered a Global News investigation looking into all firefighter resources and availability around the city.

READ MORE: Documents show widespread ‘availability’ for Winnipeg firefighters

Numbers obtained through a Freedom of Information request show on average the 43 fire trucks in the city were available 88 per cent of the time last year.

It’s well above the industry standard.

“The ideal standard is about 60 per cent,” said Fire Chief John Lane. “But you don’t want to get below that.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "The ideal standard is about 60 per cent," said Fire Chief John Lane. "But you don't want to get below that."

After hearing those numbers for the first time Thursday, some councilors are wondering if there is room for resources to be allocated elsewhere during that time.

“If 88 per cent of their time reflects that they have availability that would be great for them to be able to do that,” said Janice Lukes.

“Available” means trucks can respond to a call and aren’t currently attached to an incident; essentially they are “free.”

However, Lane was adamant that just because the data shows fire crews are available, it doesn’t mean they are sitting around doing nothing.

“In 2015, we had over 78,000 hours of training in station,” he said. “We do arson prevention. We did 910 of those arson inspections in 2016.”

According to numbers provided by the chief, this year firefighters’ duties have included:

• 178 car seat installations
• 155 community events
• 112 fire drills in large buildings
• 752 station tours
• 4000 operational crew inspections

“During all of those activities the crews remain available,” said Lane. “They are doing whatever their capacity allows them to do.”