Montreal Fire Safety Service | 17 million in overtime, due to lack of clean uniforms
Unable to wash the combat clothing of its firefighters in time, the City of Montreal spent 17 million in overtime last year to recall employees with clean uniforms to work.
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“For me, this is the cost of what I call improvidence,” denounces the president of the Montreal Firefighters Association, Chris Ross, who represents 2,400 members.
This file dates back to 2020 following a modification of the standards on the decontamination of combat clothing. A decision which resulted in a decree from the CNESST forcing the Montreal Fire Safety Service (SIM) to decontaminate the clothing of its firefighters after each intervention.
“Before, we washed the equipment at least once a year whereas [maintenant]we are talking about washing after each contamination,” explains Chris Ross.
A decision which led to an exponential increase in cleaning needs for Montreal firefighters’ equipment.
A single washing site
However, the municipal administration still only has one site where the combat clothing of its firefighters is decontaminated, namely at the SIM training center on Notre-Dame Est, in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY THE MONTREAL FIREFIGHTERS ASSOCIATION
Firefighter combat clothing awaits decontamination at the SIM training center on Notre-Dame Est.
“All combat clothing must go there, be washed and dried before returning to the barracks,” summarizes Chris Ross.
A measure all the more necessary since, he emphasizes, the CNESST recognized the deaths of 97 Montreal firefighters as being directly linked to occupational illnesses.
But due to a lack of sufficient washing capacity, many firefighters do not collect their equipment in time to return to the front.
We have firefighters who have had interventions [la veille]the guy shows up for work in the morning, he has no equipment to go to the fire, we call our firefighters back on overtime to go to the fire and the one who is on his normal time, he waits at the station.
Chris Ross, president of the Montreal Firefighters Association
Extended intervention time
What’s more, the unavailability of combat clothing also hampers the average response time of firefighters in Montreal since it prevents certain trucks from leaving the station due to lack of crew.
In 2025, for example, it rose to 5:21 minutes, up 8 seconds from the previous year and 14 seconds compared to 2020.
An impact of “vehicle cuts due to the decontamination of combat clothing [qui] have led to longer journeys for available vehicles,” confirms the SIM in documents presented at city hall on Tuesday.
SIM chief Richard Liebmann, however, expects the situation to improve during the first quarter of 2026.
“Towards the end of 2025, we have already increased our decontamination capacity [et] we bought a lot of combat clothing,” he assured the City of Montreal’s administration and finance committee on Tuesday.
Responsible management
Two additional washers were added while all firefighters were given a second uniform, which cost the City 5 million, he explained.
Robert Liebmann also says he “largely agrees” with certain comments made by Chris Ross, revealing that he himself was diagnosed with cancer linked to his years of work as a firefighter, just like his predecessor, Bruno Lachance, who died from it.
The Montreal fire chief, however, denies having delayed in acting. “Like 6e largest municipal fire department in North America […] “Sound management of funds requires us to have a certain responsibility to be sure of what we’re doing before we buy millions of dollars of equipment,” he insisted on Tuesday.
And time has proven him right as a recent change in standards, which occurred in 2025, now bans certain old uniforms made using materials impregnated with perennial contaminants (PFAS).
Enough investments?
In its latest budget, presented last week, the Martinez Ferrada administration announced it would set aside 67.3 million over 10 years to renew SIM equipment.
However, these sums may not be enough to solve the problem of washing clothes, fears Chris Ross. Next year, no less than 19 million will be devoted to replacing the 2,500 oxygen cylinders used by firefighters and which have reached the end of their useful life.
The SIM also transferred an amount of 2.9 million from its operating budget precisely to finance the purchase of these new combat clothing over ten years.
“The SIM, annually speaking, must purchase hundreds, if not a thousand, combat suits in a routine year. And if we just buy the SIM’s current needs, we won’t catch up,” says Chris Ross.
The SIM deficit amounted to 32 million in 2025.
