(Halifax) Canadian municipalities are reporting an increase in fires, sometimes fatal, in tents and other makeshift shelters used by people experiencing homelessness – a social phenomenon that is a tragic consequence of the country’s homelessness crisis , according to aid organizations.
As the number of homeless people continues to rise – and frigid weather sets in – it’s inevitable that there will be more accidental fires, admits Tim Richter, president and CEO of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, in an interview Wednesday.
“If all you can find is a propane tank or a camp stove, you’re going to use it to survive because the alternative is to freeze to death,” said Richter, whose organization estimates that there are between 260,000 and 300,000 unhoused people in Canada. “It’s only the beginning of winter and I guarantee there will be fires, amputations [à cause d’engelures] and other deaths,” he warned.
Last Monday, three people were found dead in a burned-out shed outside a Calgary home improvement store. A fire official said there was evidence the victims used the shed as shelter.
In Edmonton, there have been two deaths this year linked to fires in homeless encampments; there were four last year. The Saskatoon Fire Department has recorded more than 30 fires in tents or homeless encampments this year, up from 12 in 2022 and three in 2021.
In Halifax, firefighters have responded to more than seven fires involving unhoused people since September, including two recent tent fires; the occupants of these two fires escaped unscathed. Deputy Fire Chief David Meldrum said the occupant of a tent that caught fire said he was running a small propane heater inside and fell asleep. Firefighters, he added, found a propane tank in the other tent that burned, as well as a butane stove and a small heater nearby.
No more homelessness
Homelessness has increased across Canada in recent years. A study conducted by the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness in 11 Canadian cities found that chronic homelessness increased by 40% between February 2020 and October 2023.
In Montreal, there were 4,690 “visible” homeless people in October 2022, an increase of 33% since April 2018. In the Halifax region, the unhoused population was 1,082 on Tuesday; there were 300 in February 2020, according to the Affordable Housing Association of Nova Scotia.
Canada’s federal housing advocate Marie-Josée Houle says homeless people are forced to make heartbreaking decisions to sleep outside. “The reality is that people need warmth, the winter is so harsh […] Ultimately, the answer is housing,” she said in a recent interview.
The provisional report of Mme Houle at the Canadian Human Rights Commission says makeshift encampments have become more numerous and more densely populated since the start of the pandemic in 2020. And these encampments have increasingly been subject to a series of “responses punitive measures” of municipal authorities, such as “issuing tickets, arrest, forced eviction and destruction of tents and personal property”, indicates Mme Houle in his interim report on the review of homeless encampments, published in October.
Its report notes that these people rely on propane and fire for warmth and cooking, and that tents and other makeshift shelters easily catch fire, allowing flames to spread quickly through the encampments, destroying the shelters and their belongings.
“And these are their objects of survival […] and these are the things that make people feel more human: photos, religious symbols or even the ashes of their loved ones,” added Mme Swell in interview.
“Dismantling is not the solution”
Alexandra Flynn, a law professor at the University of British Columbia who specializes in housing and homelessness, said camp fires occur most often of course in winter and in colder cities, but she also emphasizes that fires remain a risk all year round.
“Some local authorities or fire departments will say the answer to this question is to dismantle encampments because of the fire risk. But in the work I have been involved in, this has not been flagged as a solution,” Professor Flynn said.
Research shows it is safer to offer fire safety assistance, fire extinguishers and access to shelters or warming centers than to dismantle an encampment, she said.
Mme Houle also agrees: “the reality is that […] the forced dismantling of camps will not prevent fires from occurring. “In fact, it will only make people more vulnerable and push them further away from the resources they have.” »
Increasing affordable housing stock in cities should be the priority, but all levels of government can take steps to improve safety for homeless people, said Ms.me Swell.
One example of the steps the government can take is in Saskatoon, she said, where fire departments are supporting the city’s encampments instead of dismantling them. “The Saskatoon Fire Department refused to be used as a weapon against the people in the encampments,” the defender said.
Yvonne Raymer, deputy chief of the Saskatoon Fire Department, said there are two full-time positions dedicated to fire safety checks and other support services at the encampments.
Liaison agent
“We do what we can to build trust and connections with these people,” said Ms.me Raymer. People don’t always trust someone in uniform, especially if they say “it’s not safe” or “it’s not adequate.” »
According to Mme Raymer’s job involves talking to homeless people and connecting them with services such as warming centers, shelters or medical care. His department has recorded 860 “interactions” with encampment residents so far this year.
“Saskatoon is a small city with big city problems, so it keeps us very busy,” she says.
And while Richter applauds the approach taken by the Saskatoon Fire Department, he says the only solution to homelessness is to “get people out of encampments” and into housing that meets to their needs.
Governments, he added, must treat homelessness as if it were caused by a natural disaster, including by renting hotels for unhoused people or erecting modular housing for them.
“The fires will not stop until the encampments stop,” he recalled.