Closed fire hall impacting response times: firefighters' union

The Winnipeg firefighters’ union said a fire hall that’s been shut down for months is impacting response times.

Station 8 on Kimberly Avenue in the Munroe West neighbourhood has been closed since January for upgrades.

CTV News was told a dispute between the city, fire officials, and the contractor over the flooring work inside led to delays.

“These extended renovations, it is like Russian Roulette, you hope you don’t have a major incident,” said Alex Forrest, the president of the United Firefighters of Winnipeg union.

Forrest said the closure affects response times.

A fire gutted the inside of a home on Hoskin Avenue Monday around noon.

Forrest said the Kimberly station should have been the responding hall, but instead crews came from a station farther away.

"It's always one of those questions you never know what would have happened, would we have been able to mitigate the damage even further if we could have had a better response time, only god will know,” he said.

For some, having a fire hall in their neighbourhood is comforting.

Stephanie Jackson, who lives a block away from the Kimberly station with her eight-month-old son, said normally the fire hall gives her peace of mind, but knowing it’s been closed for months makes her worry.

She said she wishes the city would have informed residents.

“It’s not very comforting. I honestly didn’t know it had been closed, so I feel like it would have been a good thing to know,” Jackson said.

A notice on the city’s website said the renovations were expected to take three months and the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service (WFPS) told CTV News the project is on time and on budget.

The city issued a statement which said: "All apparatus from Station 8 have been strategically relocated to neighbouring stations. As such, response times have remained within the required standard."

The firm doing the renovations declined an interview request.

No exact date has been set for when the station will re-open, but the WFPS said work is nearly done and crews are set to move back in this spring.

- With files from CTV’s Jeff Keele