Winnipeg firefighters are increasingly being put in dangerous situations when they’re dispatched to calls that should be handled by police, says the president of the firefighters’ union.
United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg boss Alex Forrest told the union’s members in a letter Monday that local police leadership doesn’t seem to be taking its concerns seriously, and that despite some changes to dispatch protocols, enough isn’t being done to keep firefighters safe on the city’s streets.
Forrest told Global News that while he understands police are understaffed and resources are stretched thin, it’s only a matter of time before a member of his union is seriously injured or killed.
“We’re seeing a large number of calls where we’re going to violent calls,” he said.
“We’ve have firefighter paramedics kicked, punched, bitten… we’ve had weapons drawn on us, knives, guns, homemade guns. Recently we just had a call where we had to check the well-being of an individual with a club.”
In the letter written to its members, the union is asking members to report any violent incidents.
“We’re being sent to calls, sometimes for an hour, two hours, that are criminal acts,” he said.
“We’ve been sent to calls that are everything from stealing cars, causing disturbance, security guards that are asking for police, home invasions… it has to stop or else a firefighter is going to be hurt or killed.”
Fire chief John Lane said Tuesday that the ongoing meth crisis means fire paramedics do see more violence on the job.
“The overall call volume has increased,” he said.
“It really stands to reason that if there’s a small percentage of calls we go on where (violence) has occurred, as the overall call volume increases, those infrequent calls will increase as well.”
Global News has reached out to the city for comment.
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