WINNIPEG — The union representing Winnipeg firefighters took the city to task Tuesday for the second day in a row about cutbacks they say put lives at risk.
United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg president Alex Forrest accused the fire department of reducing the number of fire trucks ready to respond to fires and cutting the number of firefighters assigned to each truck. Forrest said it’s part of a bid to cut overtime costs.
“The overtime issue cannot be addressed by putting firefighters and the citizens of Winnipeg at risk in this manner,” Forrest said in a statement released Tuesday afternoon.
Forrest used the social networking website Twitter to call attention to the alleged cuts, and posted a link to a memo he says was written by acting fire chief Bill Clark.
In the memo, Clark is quoted saying that in a big to cut overtime costs, some fire trucks will be sent on other duties or left idle unless needed during periods of “peak demand.” The memo goes on to say “these selected units may be converted to two-member ‘squad’ units, with no impact on public or member safety. Members know these units play a significant role in primary response to medical calls, which are 75 per cent of the requests for emergency service directed to the Winnipeg Fire Department.”
While the memo insists the two-man units would be used only for medical calls and not fires, Forrest said the proposed change puts safety at risk.
“Not only does this go against industry standards for safety response protocols, but it is also a direct violation of the collective agreement. This action directly puts both firefighters and the civilians of Winnipeg at risk,” Forrest wrote in a letter to Mayor Sam Katz and all city councillors.
On Monday Forrest criticized the fire department for a policy that delays the dispatch of ladder trucks to fire calls until the presence of an actual fire is confirmed. Forrest claimed this delayed the response of a ladder truck to a blaze downtown on Sunday, where a resident jumped from a balcony to escape the flames in his apartment suite.
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