PA Firefighters were called to a fire at the Central Ave. viaduct earlier this spring. The dept. has seen a 95% increase in outdoor fire calls. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

By Susan McNeil

Outdoor fire calls double

Outdoor fire calls more than double for PA Fire

May 30, 2024 | 5:00 PM

Last year was a busy year for the Prince Albert Fire Department with large increases in calls for outdoor fires over what they responded to the year before.

In 2022, PA Fire was called to 269 outdoor fires but in 2023, that number almost doubled to 525 and many of those are connected to the growth in homeless encampments.

“So that’s a significant increase of 95 per cent,” said Fire Chief Kris Olsen.

Those fires have a variety of causes, such as kids playing with matches or people having lit a fire and leaving it unattended.

Olsen said that 2022 itself was already a banner year for the department and stats from that year were over 30 per cent higher than 2021.

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All told, PA Fire attended 1,826 calls in 2023, around 200 more than the previous year.

Structure fires have gone up as well. In 2023 there were 95 structure fires compared to 78 the year before.

The amount of increase is higher than the population increase, which Olsen said is reflected in other areas such as jumps in calls for all emergency services.

“What we’re finding is a lot of them are in areas throughout the city and associated with homeless camps. Usually, we’re finding some kind of shelter there or evidence that someone had been there. Those are the situations that we’re seeing an increase in,” he said.

Remnants of a fire in the West Flat area of Prince Albert. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

The last count of the homeless population in Prince Albert was done in 2022 and found 120 people who said they were not sheltered.

In about an hour of driving around, paNOW found multiple active encampments or signs of outdoor fires where they should not be, such as near the hospital, the edge of town in the West Flat and under both the Central Avenue and Sixth Avenue viaducts.

Under the Sixth Ave. viaduct. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

The Sixth Avenue viaduct is organized to the point the people living under it have a storage system for cardboard boxes, blankets and water bottles.

This location under the Sixth Ave. viaduct is a storage location for cardboard boxes. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

Agencies that work with homeless people say they have no doubt the number has grown.

The Prince Albert YWCA is looking for a permanent shelter location and has a funding commitment from the province but is having difficulty finding a spot.

The organization runs the Stepping Stones Shelter which increased to 45 beds in October, but knows they need to be able to accommodate a lot more than that.

READ MORE: The search for a permanent location has continued for some time.

A federally funded position called the Community Safety and Wellbeing Co-ordinator has been staffed in Prince Albert.

Anna Dinsdale said it’s her job to help the various organizations attempting to tackle the problem of homelessness come together.

“How can we come together, work together, in partnership to address complex social issues and encampments is one of those complex social issues,” she explained.

Prince Albert Fire Department, along with other first responders are part of the discussions and residents are being asked to report homeless encampments to the City Bylaw department.

This encampment near the Victoria Hospital has been there for almost a year. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)

The reasons people choose to live ‘rough’ or in an encampment are complex, said Dinsdale and she knows that people must be somewhere so removing a camp isn’t a solution to the actual problem when the person will just go set up another one somewhere else.

Right now, the city is dealing with encampments the traditional way – by removing them – but that still allows the person to be helped to the extent they are willing to take it.

Riverbank Development Corporation is tasked with helping people make the transition between living on the streets and finding a roof to live under. They regularly hold sessions where people can attend to access the resources that are available in the library and at the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre. Both are downtown.

When bylaw officers remove an encampment, the person living there is given the information they need to contact Riverbank for housing assistance.

Dinsdale also points out that while homeless people are responsible for lighting some fires for understandable reasons such as keeping warm, it isn’t only them.

Some of the random fires are being lit by people who have homes but may be suffering from other mental health challenges.

“Some of the things that we’re seeing, of course, we know they’re connected to encampments, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the other issues that we’re seeing that are kind of problematic in the community aren’t always to do with people that are homeless either. It’s also to do with people that are experiencing other social problems,” she said.

Two people spend some time under the Central Ave. viaduct several days ago. (Susan McNeil/paNOW)