A Year of Mounting Pressure
Saskatoon firefighters spent much of 2025 stretched to their limits — not just battling blazes, but responding to a surging wave of overdoses and encampment emergencies that reshaped what a shift on the job looks like.
According to data reviewed by the fire department, the number of overdose calls that required firefighter response nearly doubled compared to the previous year. At the same time, fires at encampments — temporary shelters used by people experiencing homelessness — more than doubled, compounding the workload on crews already managing a busy emergency calendar.
Department officials described the cumulative impact as a "substantial strain" on personnel and resources.
Beyond Fighting Fires
The Saskatoon situation reflects a broader shift playing out in fire departments across Canada. As the overdose crisis deepens and visible homelessness grows in cities from Victoria to Halifax, firefighters are increasingly acting as a catch-all emergency response — filling gaps that would traditionally fall to paramedics, social services, or mental health teams.
Encampment fires are particularly resource-intensive. Unlike structure fires, they're often in hard-to-reach locations, involve improvised shelters and open flames, and can spread quickly to adjacent areas. Responding to them frequently requires extended scene management rather than a quick knockdown and return to station.
Overdose calls add a different kind of pressure. Firefighters are trained in first aid and often carry naloxone, but repeated exposure to overdose scenes — sometimes multiple calls per shift in the same neighbourhood — takes a psychological toll that departments are only beginning to formally track and address.
Fire Inspections Drop as Demand Rises
One of the more telling statistics from Saskatoon's 2025 figures: the number of fire inspections dropped over the same period. Inspections are a core preventive function — they catch hazards before they become emergencies. When operational demand eats into the time crews have for prevention work, it can set up a cycle where future emergency calls increase.
It's a resource trade-off that fire chiefs across Canada are watching closely. More calls means less time for the proactive work that keeps call volumes down in the first place.
A National Conversation
Saskatoon's numbers arrive as Canadian cities continue to debate how to address both the overdose epidemic and the visibility of encampments on public land. Firefighters and paramedics have become frontline responders to what is fundamentally a public health and housing crisis — a role that comes without the specialized training, staffing ratios, or mental health supports that social and health workers receive.
Unions representing emergency services workers have called for additional resources, peer support programs, and clearer protocols around when and how fire departments should be dispatched to non-fire emergencies.
For Saskatoon's crews, 2025 was a year that made those conversations impossible to ignore.
Source: CBC News Saskatoon. Read the original report.
