Fire departments feeling the pressure as calls continue to increase

A number of fire departments across New Brunswick are reporting an increase in calls in 2024.

Ashley Graham, the president of the Moncton Firefighters Association, said the yearly call number has continued to grow since 2020.

Graham said the Moncton Fire Department had 3,740 emergency calls that year. In 2021, that number jumped to 5,074 and the numbers have increased every year, with a total of 9,134 calls in 2024.

"We've never hit that before," Graham said.

He said while it's great to see the population growing and high-rises going up around the city, those mean more emergencies — with not necessarily an increase in resources to deal with them.

Graham acknowledged that the city recently approved four new firefighting positions, but he said a report will be coming out this year calling for a significant increase in firefighters.

There's a mental health aspect to the resource shortage, such as not having enough time for firefighters to process traumatic calls, he said, but there's also a physical toll. 

"Just two days ago, where there was a car in the river — that took four of the five stations to be there," said Graham. "So there's only one station left covering the entire city. That happens more often than not now."

On top of that, Graham said the job has changed. Fires burn hotter and faster than ever with the materials used for building homes changing, he said. 

He believes there are more motor vehicle accidents because of an increase in distractions, and infrastructure that doesn't accommodate a population boom, and he said there's a growing homeless population in the city which results in more small-fire calls. 

David McKinley, Fredericton's assistant deputy fire chief, said the capital city has also seen an increase in calls, up 1.7 per cent from 2023. 

The biggest category where he noticed an increase was in fires, noting the department is responding to a lot more nuisance fires.

Of the 5,236 emergency calls in 2024, he said 681 were for fires. That is a significant increase, he said, given that the five-year average for fire calls is 513.

Along with nuisance fires, structure fires also increased, said McKinley.

"We are keeping a very close eye on the structural fires," he said, adding that it will be addressed in the department's upcoming fire prevention campaigns.

The Miramichi Professional Firefighters Association posted on Facebook on Wednesday to share that its members responded to 613 calls — up 66 from 2023. 

The post partially attributed the increase to a growing population and noted that the calls were 100 per cent fire or rescue responses, as Miramichi Fire does not provide medical response. 

Further north, Gregory West, president of the Bathurst Professional Firefighters Association, said while the numbers don't seem as big when compared to larger cities, Bathurst also experienced one of its busiest years for emergency calls. 

In 2023, the Bathurst Fire Department had 372 calls and that increased to 440 in 2024.

"I've been a firefighter with the department now since 2008 as a full-time firefighter, and it's not numbers that we've seen since then," he said, adding that the department responded to more medical calls this year even though it's usually police who will respond if an ambulance is busy.

Recent negotiations resulted in an additional firefighter per shift, said West, and he said the city is currently in the process of restructuring the fire department.

"The city had a study done that, you know, it kind of indicates that manning is to be increased over the next 10 years," he said. "What it will be at, I'm not sure, but anything that we get extra would be a great help."

In Moncton, Graham said the concern over resources weighs on firefighters.

"We all go into these professions to help people — from the nurses to the paramedics, you know, to the firefighters and the police officers — it gets overwhelming at times that the demand is so big."