City encourages residents to report encampments

By Lethbridge Herald on January 19, 2026.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Lethbridge Herald

Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services, Lethbridge Police Service and the City of Lethbridge’s Community Social Development department are asking residents to report encampments.

Sean Middleton, encampment support specialist with the city of Lethbridge said Monday the encampment strategy was created to balance the needs of vulnerable population as well as public safety. 

“We work really close with the Lethbridge Police Service and Fire to reduce fire hazards in the river bottom, however, we can only respond to what gets reported,” said Middleton.  

When encampments are reported, the encampment response team can assess hazards and proactively address risks to occupants and the community, while connecting individuals to outreach services.

Lethbridge Police Sgt. Ryan Darroch in charge of the Downtown Police Unit said the last couple of weeks have been troubling with couple of incidents involving encampments in the river bottom and people sleeping rough in the area. 

“Both of those events led to some serious fires, and we got very lucky without loss of life and property that couldn’t be replaced. We were within meters of that happening,” said Darroch. 

He said they need people to be their eyes and ears when they are in the river valley and report anything they believe to be out of the ordinary, an encampment or someone having a fire. 

“We currently do not have the resources within the Lethbridge Police Service or the Fire Department to be constantly deployed in those areas, so we rely upon the awesome citizens of our city to help us with that,” said Darroch. 

When talking about the arson charges laid in connection with the fire that burned parts of the Mountainview Cemetery, Darroch said they believed there was some drug use involved, which led to grass catching fire and getting out of control. 

“When events like that happen, it is a huge drain in our resources. Our role is to give the fire department space to work, so we are blocking roadways, evacuating people. In that case there was several houses that needed to be evacuated,” said Darroch. 

He said some people are very reluctant to leave and it is a very traumatic experience for them, so people are very upset. 

“For us, that takes six, eight or ten officers away from other duties and things can pile up or get put on hold, and that can take hours and even days to get caught up,” said Darroch. 

Troy Hicks, Chief Fire Marshal with Lethbridge Fire and Emergency Services said the fire risk is very high right now due to the dry conditions and warm weather. 

“The fire we had last week, we had five stations response. The entire day shift that was working that day was called to that fire, including some of our fire and EMS administration as well like our deputy chiefs and chiefs on call,” said Hicks. 

He said when that happens the city is at risk, because all the manpower is being utilized to contain a fire that was preventable. 

“In those situations what we do is we call people to come in and fill in, so that takes time. People are doing whatever they are doing on their day off, or getting ready for their night shift, so maybe they are having their afternoon nap, so it takes time to get people in,” said Hicks. 

Data from the City’s Encampment Response Report (2023-2025) shows that public reporting leads to measurable safety outcomes. Over this period, the ERT triaged more than 2,200 sites and removed more than 85,000 kilograms of debris city-wide. During the same timeframe, outdoor fire incidents declined by 27.7 per cent from 2023 to 2024, even as reports of encampments increased.

If you observe an encampment or conditions that may present a fire or safety risk, you are encouraged to report it online at https://www.lethbridge.ca/emergency-services-public-safety/safety-contacts/ or by phone by calling 311. But if there is an active fire or an emergency, report it by calling 9-1-1. 

When reporting, residents are asked to provide the location and any visible hazards. Timely and accurate reports allow City teams to respond effectively.