Fire department big enough to handle increase in calls

Steinbach’s fire chief is confident the department has enough members to serve our growing population. 

Kel Toews acknowledges the increased number of calls this year, but says we have enough fire fighters at this time. 

“We’ve got nine new members from last year, right now we're at 50,” he says. “So right now, we've got a good number of members. We'll take a look again in a couple of years to see whether we need to hire again, but right now we're good.” 

In the first 11 months of this year, the Steinbach Fire Department has been called out 284 times.  

That is an increase of 36 calls from last year. 

Toews says the city is growing, so this increase is not a surprise. 

"As the population grows, the numbers in all the categories are going to go up,” he says.

Census 2021 numbers were released in February revealing that Steinbach has grown 11.1% since 2016 and now has a population of 17,806. 

The Steinbach Fire Department responded to 21 building fires this year from January to November. That is an increase of 7 from 2021.