Thompson Fire & Emergency Services (TFES) responded to more calls than ever before in in its 49-year history in 2021, according to the union that represents its firefighter-paramedics.
Last year saw 8,506 calls in total, including 506 fires and 8,000 emergency medical services (EMS) calls.
That’s up about 15 per cent from 2020, when there were 7,354 total calls.
The bulk of the increase came from EMS calls, which went from 6,881 in 2020 to 8,000 last year.
Also rising substantially were the number of multiple simultaneous incidents. (Two ore more calls occurring at the same time.) There were 3,821 last year, compared to just under 3,300 in 2020. The first year there were more than 3,000 multiple incident responses was in 2019. Before that, there had only been 2,000 or more twice, in 2016 and 2018.
“With only two ambulances staffed regularly, this is stretching our community’s resources very thin and leaving minimal members on duty to respond to successive emergencies and/or fire-rescue incidents,” said the Thompson Professional Firefighters Association (TPFFA) in a social medial post.
Ten years ago, the total number of calls the department responded to was 5,531, including 5,121 EMS calls and 1,007 multiple incident responses.
"Despite this huge increase, which is running our members off of their feet, we have seen no increase in staffing or units in over 12 years,” said the TPFFA. “Compared to all other of Manitoba’s rural or urban fire/EMS services, Thompson remains one of the busiest in our province and additional resources are needed sooner rather than later to sustain and enhance services in our area.”
