{"id":648329,"date":"2026-05-05T01:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T01:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/648329\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T01:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T01:20:13","slug":"call-volumes-a-challenge-for-winnipeg-firefighters-after-7-calls-in-just-over-a-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/648329\/","title":{"rendered":"Call volumes a challenge for Winnipeg firefighters after 7 calls in just over a day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Winnipeg firefighters fought seven blazes in just over 24 hours this past weekend, but that volume of calls isn\u2019t out of the ordinary.<\/p>\n

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The fires happened at homes, vacant buildings, grassland, and an apartment complex on Young Street. Residents there were evacuated but were soon allowed to return inside after the firefighting efforts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe alarm went off so we went down,\u201d explains Tara Biswanger, who recently moved into the building. \u201cIt was on the second floor balcony and the balcony was on fire. The firefighters moved really fast so it didn\u2019t seem to take that long for them to get it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

No injuries were reported in any of the seven fires, and the city says the cause of the fires are still being investigated.<\/p>\n

\u201cSadly a lot of our weekends are this busy or close to it,\u201d says Deputy Fire Chief Scott Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

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Calls for service have increased for the firefighters as the city\u2019s population has grown, and the mental health and addictions crisis has become more severe. In 2025 alone, Winnipeg firefighters responded to over 500 fires at encampments.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis does put an ongoing strain on our resources, and certainly puts a strain on our crews trying to respond to that volume of fires everyday,\u201d explains Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working on some strategic plans now regarding how many more resources we need to sustain our response and alter the way we respond to calls to keep up the response times we need. Certainly with the growth of our city, we are going to look at additional stations and resources to keep up with that growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Young Street weekend call is not the only high-rise fire in recent weeks. A blaze at a Kennedy Street apartment complex in mid-April displaced residents, and one person was found dead inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose are high-density, high-risk housing units,\u201d says United Firefighters of Winnipeg President Nick Kasper.<\/p>\n

Firefighters tasked with battling blazes in these taller buildings often face additional challenges compared to the average two-story home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we respond to a regular structure fire, we arrive in front of the house and we\u2019re there ready to go,\u201d explains Kasper.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere\u2019s something known as vertical delay. When our crews arrive at a high rise they have to get their equipment from the ground floor up to the fire suite and worry about evacuating residents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kasper goes on to say the blaze at Kennedy Street resulted in the relocation of nearly 70 residents.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Winnipeg firefighters fought seven blazes in just over 24 hours this past weekend, but that volume of calls…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,44,22073,111228],"class_list":["post-648329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-news","tag-winnipeg","tag-winnipeg-fire"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648329","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=648329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}