![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/winnipeg-fire-1-1.jpg\")
Press conference at the Winnipeg fire dept. on Feb. 20, 2026. (Koby Mitchell, CityNews) <\/p>\nA new platform ladder truck is now part of the\u00a0Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service\u00a0fleet, as the\u00a0City of Winnipeg\u00a0continues a long-term plan to modernize its equipment.<\/p>\n
The truck was officially welcomed Friday during a traditional \u201cpushing-in\u201d ceremony. The city says it is on track to replace every ladder truck in its fleet within a 10-year period.<\/p>\n
Press conference at the Winnipeg fire dept. on Feb. 20, 2026. (Koby Mitchell, CityNews) <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat this is about today really is about making sure the residents of our city can get the fire and paramedic response they need at the right time. It\u2019s about ensuring that our staff that do the great work that they do day in and day out have the equipment they need,\u201d said Scott Gillingham, mayor of Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
Union officials say replacing aging equipment is critical as call volumes continue to strain crews and apparatus across the system.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a number of apparatuses that have been on order for some time, this is one of those heavy fleet that was purchased. So it\u2019s gonna be replacing our aerial ladder number one out of Station One which is the busiest fire station in North America, so it\u2019s a welcome piece of replacement for that apparatus for that truck there that sees over 4,000 calls per year,\u201d said Nick Kasper, president, United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
While the new truck is seen as a positive addition, Fire and Paramedic Chief Christian Schmidt pointed to staffing as a more pressing concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough the 2026 budget we\u2019ve been afforded the opportunity to hire additional fire fighters who will be assigned to this pool. And we\u2019ll be able to staff them across the four shifts, basically the four platoons in a more flexible manner,\u201d said Christian Schmidt, fire and paramedic chief, Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service.<\/p>\n
Kasper said more resources are still needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe did see the fire chief call for 40 additional positions. In 2026 the council responded with 10, we were able to increase that to 20. So that\u2019s gonna certainly help with overtime costs. The department pays over 10 million dollars per year in overtime. But it\u2019s not gonna be adding any firefighters to the street in terms of response capacity or prevention capacity,\u201d said Kasper.<\/p>\n
In addition to new hires, Schmidt highlighted the establishment of a new wellness clinic aimed at supporting frontline staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re hiring on nine personnel that will be dedicated to assisting fire paramedic service personnel in their recovery, and assist in their return to the work place,\u201d said Schmidt.<\/p>\n
City officials say the combination of updated equipment and targeted staffing investments is intended to strengthen emergency response across Winnipeg, while union leaders maintain further expansion will be needed to meet growing demand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new platform ladder truck is now part of the\u00a0Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service\u00a0fleet, as the\u00a0City of Winnipeg\u00a0continues a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-488766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-winnipeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}