The president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg says that his members are being sent to dangerous non-medical, non-fire related calls on a regular basis and that city officials are not responding to his concerns.
Alex Forrest, UFFW 867 president, said in a statement that firefighters are being sent to what are considered police matters.
On February 16, 2019, firefighters responded to a male that was either sleeping or in and out of consciousness at the beverage room at the Maryland Hotel. Firefighters on scene determined that the male was highly intoxicated and called
Forrest says that the firefighters who responded to the call could have been injured or killed during the incident.
Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service Deputy Chief of Operations and Communications Christian Schmidt says that as calls come into the emergency communications centre they are triaged using a medical priority dispatch and fire priority dispatch system. Based on answers to specific questions to the caller, communications operators can either transfer calls to other agencies like police or dispatch crews.
Schmidt say that crews have the ability to “self stage” and not engage with an individual.
“All of our crews are fully aware that they are able to do what we call self-staging where based on the dispatched information and other information that they may acquire while they’re arriving on scene they can make a decision to self-stage, not engage with that patient and request the assistance of the police service,” said Schmidt.
Winnipeg Police Service Deputy Chief of Operations Good Perrier says that a determination had to be made if that person was in distress or not. The call did not fit the highest priority and there was no indication of violence.
Perrier said ” The information that was gathered by the call takers was assessed and then it was forwarded to the
