Windsor Professional Fire Fighters Association representatives are criticizing the city’s plan to “slash frontline fire protection and other lifesaving resources” after dismal Windsor statistics were released.

Windsor had the highest rate of fire loss, fire injury and fire fatalities of any major city in Ontario, according to an independent report by the Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Initiative.

The union says the report is even more evidence that the city’s plan in the new year is a bad idea that needs to be deferred.

The document also shows the city’s 90th percentile for fire department response times for fires and medical emergencies such as heart attacks has grown by almost half a minute since 2011, while most other cities’ response times have remained the same or decreased.

“The findings in the OMBI report illustrate in black and white that this is absolutely the wrong time for Windsor to be cutting fire department resources,” says Angelo Gertsakis, president of the Windsor Professional Fire Fighters Association.

“If there was any more proof needed that the proposed fire department cuts are wrong for Windsor, this is it. In the name of public safety, we call on the city to at the very least hold off on these cuts until they’ve addressed the problems outlined in the OMBI report and they can assure residents and business owners they’re getting the fire protection and emergency medical response they deserve.”

The city is planning to close two fire halls at the beginning of next year and replacing them with one, reducing the number of firefighters on duty every day from 53 to 50. The city is also planning to take a fire engine out of service and to get rid of a fire prevention officer and a public education officer.

Fire Chief Bruce Montone doesn't agree with the correlation between the OMBI report and the city's fire plan.

"I think if you look at the individual occurrences you're going to find one of the reasons, for example, in 2013 we had such a spike in fire loss is that we had two very significant fires that caused an extra ordinary amount of dollar loss," says Montone.

Montone points to the spring 2013 million dollar Sprucewood fire as a contributor to the unflattering report.

He says all Windsor firefighters should been viewed as public education officers, compensating for the planned job cuts.

"We're trying to create that situation where every member of the organization,” says Montone. “Fire prevention and public fire safety education are our first two lines of defense and everyone in the organization is going to participate in the delivery of that.”

Firefighters say the cuts will increase emergency response times and reduce the capabilities of crews, and save the average household $2 per month.

In response to the city’s proposed cuts, Windsor firefighters earlier this year drafted their own plan to improve fire and medical response times and public safety by maintaining frontline resources, at a cost of just $2 a month for the average household. The union says the city ignored the plan.

“We’re willing to sit down with the city anytime to discuss our plan and to show them again how public safety can be improved in Windsor instead of further eroded,” says Gertsakis. “If there’s one thing people expect their tax dollars to do it’s to protect them. We just don’t want to see the city going in the opposite direction.”