Independent survey upgrades Winnipeg’s firefighting ranking; union calls for more personnel

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service is welcoming an improved ranking of its ability to fight and prevent fires, while some say a staff shortage is still hindering service.

The 2024 Fire Underwriters Survey measures how well communities prepare to battle fires, especially through infrastructure such as fire-paramedic stations, hydrants and water access, as well as fire-prevention programs and fire code enforcement.

It upgraded the WFPS ranking for larger buildings to Class 2, from Class 3. The category includes apartments, commercial structures and industrial properties.

“It shows that the investment we have made as a city and continue to make in staff and equipment and… fire stations are paying dividends,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham.

The ranking ranges from 1 to 10, with Class 1 the highest level available.

WFPS also maintained a Class 1 rating, the highest available of five levels, for fire preparation related to single-family homes.

A staff report credits the higher ranking to improved performance and communication, a reliable water supply and better fire safety measures, which it says followed “major investments in infrastructure, training, and emergency readiness.”

The assessment also judges the city’s fire hydrant distribution and condition, alarm response, fire code enforcement and fire-prevention programs, among other factors.

The mayor said the improved rating means WFPS is better equipped to manage more complex fires.

“This is an independent review…. This is a very important analysis that’s been done that clearly shows our ratings are improving,” said Gillingham.

The union that represents Winnipeg firefighters says the higher ranking is good news but dozens of additional front-line staff are still desperately needed to speed up emergency-response times.

“We now have operable fire hydrants in closer proximity to homes. That’s great. But fire hydrants (alone) don’t put out fires…. So, this assessment is only part of the picture,” said Nick Kasper, president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg.

UFFW is asking the city to add 60 full-time, regularly scheduled firefighters to reduce overtime this year.

“When people call 911, they don’t care about the insurance grading that they received for having a fire hydrant or a fire station close to their house. They care about (whether) a truck is available in their community with firefighters to respond…. We know that we’re failing in that metric,” said Kasper.

“When people call 911, they don’t care about the insurance grading that they received for having a fire hydrant or a fire station close to their house.”

In recent months, UFFW has publicly called out long waits for fire service. For example, the union said it took more than nine minutes for the first fire truck to arrive at a blaze that gutted a home in St. Vital on Aug. 10. The national standard is four minutes.

The mayor noted the city is proposing to add 40 more full-time firefighter positions over the next four years in its preliminary 2026 budget.

Meanwhile, since insurance companies use the fire underwriters survey to help set property insurance rates, the higher ranking could help local business save money, the city report notes.

The head of a provincial insurance organization confirmed that should be the case for people who have businesses in larger buildings, if other factors that affect prices don’t change.

“What that should do, over time, is it should lower the price of insurance for those clients,” said Grant Wainikka, chief executive officer of the Insurance Brokers Association of Manitoba.

Wainikka cautioned price decreases aren’t guaranteed, however, and the amount of potential savings is tough to estimate. That’s because many other factors also affect insurance costs, such as the frequency of fires in the area surrounding a property and previous losses at each affected business.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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