Half of arson incidents in Regina are bin or garbage fires. What needs to change?

The Regina Police Service arson co-ordinator and firefighters say a large chunk of the city's arsons since 2024 have been bin and garbage fires.

Police and advocates attribute some of these fires to the homeless population as they try to stay warm during Regina’s long and freezing winters.

According to data logged by police, the number of arson incidents increased by 5.7 per cent between 2024 and 2025. During the past decade, arsons have increased to 547 in 2024 from 63 in 2014.

Those numbers, however, are largely due to the fact that bin and garbage fires are classified as arson, unlike in Saskatoon and other Saskatchewan municipalities. Sgt. Bart Lutz, arson co-ordinator for Regina police, said the service is looking into reclassifying what constitutes as arson in the Queen City.

“It could be something like somebody lighting garbage on fire in an empty lot. And we classify that as arson right now. So we're looking into possibly changing that to fall more in line with other police agencies,” said Lutz.

Lutz said 50 per cent of arson incidents since 2024 were bin and garbage, or rubble, fires. Garbage fires make up 30 per cent of that statistic. 

“Addictions has a lot to do with it … mental health," Lutz said. "Right now in Regina, there's a lot of people who use fire as a source of heat to stay warm.”

Lutz said hot spots are usually found in north central and east central areas of the city. He stipulated, however, that these fires are being started by many people, not just homeless individuals. 

Tiro Mthembu, an organizer for the Heritage community and an advocate for homeless people, said that over the last 10 years he’s seen homelessness increase due to a lack of low-income housing and shelters. He said he is not surprised by the number of arsons in the city. 

“Winter’s looming and what we're seeing on the streets is a lot of people in chaos, in emergency and urgent care.… There's a lot of stress and anxiety that you can feel on the streets,” said Mthembu.

“For years and years, with no funding to affordable housing, maintaining affordable housing and inadequate warming spaces being provided, we see a larger, larger amount of our community members in encampments living rough.”

Mthembu said that for the Regina homeless population, surviving a prairie winter means living day-to-day by any means necessary. That, he said, often means keeping warm by the side of a lit bin and having fires near makeshift tent encampments.

Mthembu said there could be less of this if the city would better prepare ahead of the cold season to provide enough funding for more warming centres and programs to keep homeless people engaged and safe.

But if more isn’t done, he said, the city can expect to see the number of bin fires increase.