Lack of first responders 'puts the safety of the public at risk' in northern Manitoba city, captain says

High vacancy rates in Thompson Fire & Emergency Services are causing delayed fire and medical responses and putting the community at risk, firefighters in the northern Manitoba city say.

Thompson Fire & Emergency Services currently has a 20 per cent vacancy rate, they said.

"It's stretched very thin in Thompson," said Capt. Travis Mirus, president of the Thompson Professional Firefighters Association. 

"It puts the safety of our membership at risk and it puts the safety of the public at risk."

A full complement of staff in the service has 31 people — 24 fire medics, five people in dispatch, the deputy chief and the chief. The fire medics are cross-trained to staff both the fire trucks and the ambulances.

The team is currently down four fire medics, which Mirus said is almost an entire shift of crew.

Members are getting burned out, he said.

"We're barely halfway through the year and we have members that have worked the equivalent of eight extra weeks of overtime," he said. 

At least 42 times this year, one or more firefighters have ended up working 24-hour shifts, Mirus said. On Sunday, the on-duty shift responded to 23 incidents over 10 hours.

"That's not even becoming that abnormal anymore," he said.

Chief Steve Molloy said relying on extensive overtime is the only way to ensure they have adequate staffing for each shift. 

He said three team members have totalled nearly 700 hours of overtime this year so far.

Every day they have overlapping emergencies and calls coming in that they can't immediately respond to, meaning response times are delayed.

While the city has a population of just under 14,000, it's a hub for the north and they serve up to 60,000 residents because of the outlying communities, Molloy said.