Arson spree worse than fiery ’90s: Fire union prez

A fire in the 500-block Home Street Saturday, June 29, 2013 caused an estimated $300,000 in damage. (HANDOUT/Ryan Marcoff)

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A series of small fires Friday night kept firefighters racing through the West End.

A garage fire in the 700-block of Toronto Street was the largest, causing an estimated $20,000 in damage to a detached garage just before 1 a.m.

Winnipeg police spokesperson Const. Eric Hofley said the arson strike force attended the blaze, as they do most fires.

The detached garage fire did not spread to the home and no one was injured. There's no word on the cause of the blaze.

At Dominion Street and Sargent Avenue later Saturday, another garage fire was extinguished without injuring anyone.

Up to nine other small fires were sparked in the West End Friday night and early Saturday, which United Firefighters of Winnipeg president Alex Forrest says is "stretching crews to the maximum."

"This year and last year are worse than it was in the 1990s -- when we had the great arson problems," Forrest said. "Every weekend there's five, six, seven, eight, nine arsons."

Police weren't able to confirm a report that 22 suspected arsons happened Canada Day weekend.

Even though most of the fires fought so far in July have affected garbage bins and garages, "There's no such thing as a minor fire," Forrest says.

"While crews at one fire, another fire being lit "? so we have an increased response time. And by the time they get there, we don't just have a minor garage fire, we have a raging inferno. If the fire crews hadn't put themselves between the house and garage (last night), it could have expanded to the neighbouring houses," he said.

Forrest said Friday's fires could have been much worse if fire crews hadn't made it when they did, of if had been a windy night.

Crews get exhausted and dehydrated fighting summer fires, in part because they wear the same gear that keeps them safe in -30 C weather.

Forrest estimates some firefighters lose 5% of their body weight wearing the hot, heavy suit during a summer blaze.

Those "exhausted" fire crews -- and paramedics, he notes -- are doing their best to hold out against a bigger fight, he says.

"It affects the whole city, because the crews that are fighting downtown have to be supported by crews from the suburbs. So it's a domino effect," Forrest said. "What happens is that everything gets spread thin across the city "? so it affects every citizen in Winnipeg when we have these arson fires."

Source: http://www.winnipegsun.com/2013/07/06/arson-spree-worse-than-fiery-90s-fire-union-prez

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