The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) says its emergency system is facing sustained pressure as both call volumes and case complexity continue to rise, according to its 2025 Annual Report released Thursday.<\/p>\n
Fire Chief Christian Schmidt says despite the increase in demand, frontline crews continue to deliver consistent service.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the sharp increase in calls year-over-year, WFPS members continue to deliver high-quality firefighting and paramedic services to Winnipeg residents,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cI could not be prouder of our team for their professionalism and dedication in challenging circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
WFPS reports it responded to 160.2 incidents per 1,000 residents in 2025, including a record number of medical emergencies.<\/p>\n
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Medical response system seeing major demand<\/p>\n
Medical calls remain the biggest driver of service demand, prompting changes aimed at improving response times for the most urgent cases.<\/p>\n
The service updated its medical dispatch system to better prioritize high-acuity emergencies and expanded its Enhanced Low Acuity Triage (ELAT) program.<\/p>\n
Through ELAT, callers with lower-acuity needs can be connected directly with an advanced care paramedic instead of immediately dispatching emergency crews.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the program handled more than 11,000 incidents, with more than 60 per cent resolved without sending a crew.<\/p>\n
Despite those measures, WFPS says crews still responded to more than 22,000 medical calls where no ambulance was dispatched, freeing up the equivalent of 4.5 ambulances per day for higher-priority emergencies.<\/p>\n
Schmidt says the system is now under significant strain.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2025, there were a combined 64 hours when no ambulances were available to respond to emergencies,\u201d he said. \u201cImproving response capacity will require additional investment in ambulances and paramedics.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fire and rescue calls remain elevated<\/p>\n
Fire and rescue incidents also stayed high throughout the year, with WFPS responding to more than 11,900 alarms, including more than 1,000 structure fires. Several of those incidents involved serious injuries and loss of life.<\/p>\n
The report also notes an ongoing increase in intentionally set fires, which continues to add pressure on frontline crews and investigators responding to multiple scenes in a single day.<\/p>\n
WFPS says prevention remains a priority, but notes many of these incidents are not easily addressed through education alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cFires have serious and lasting impacts on residents and neighbourhoods,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cReducing the fire risk before emergencies happen remains a key priority, and our Community Risk Reduction team plays an important role in improving safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
The annual report highlights both the resilience of emergency personnel and the ongoing challenges facing Winnipeg\u2019s emergency response system as call volumes continue to rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) says its emergency system is facing sustained pressure as both call volumes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194296],"tags":[49,48,22073],"class_list":["post-777476","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\/777476","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=777476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}