WINNIPEG – A man’s dramatic escape from a weekend fire illustrates what’s wrong with the city’s ladder truck policy, says Alex Forrest, the Winnipeg firefighters union president.
A man jumped from his balcony to escape the fire at 120 Donald St. on Sunday morning, Forrest said Monday.
If the ladder truck had been sent out when the emergency call was first made, the man might have escaped serious injury, he contends.
“We had an aerial ladder sitting in the fire hall doing nothing, staffed, a million-dollar machine waiting to be called, even though it was an automatic alarm,” Forrest said. “It has to go on first complement. That’s the international standard. That’s the standard of every major city in Canada.”
The ladder truck is only dispatched after firefighters at the scene confirm there is a fire, not a false alarm.
That’s putting lives in danger, Forrest said.
The man who occupied the suite where the fire broke out suffered serious burns and was taken to Health Sciences Centre in unstable condition.
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