Hundreds honour fallen Winnipeg firefighters in solemn ceremony [Video]

Hundreds gathered in Winnipeg’s Memorial Park Saturday afternoon in a solemn ceremony honouring the lives of fallen firefighters.

“When one of our members fall, we all fall,” said Tom Bilous, president of United Firefighters Winnipeg. “So that’s what we do. We come together.”

This year’s event paid tribute to six firefighters — Lionel Gauthier, Gordon Earl White, Brian Fuller, Ronald Murray, Richard Johnson and Preston Heinbigner, who died by suicide in April. Heinbigner’s death sparked calls for better mental health supports for first responders and those on the front lines.

“We’ve already announced supports for firefighters and police and other first responders to get that kind of counseling and mental health support, but we know that there’s going to be other steps that we have to do as well,” Premier Wab Kinew told CTV News in an interview.

Those measures include increased staffing in southwest Winnipeg, along with additional funding for …