Martin Johnson is a former battalion chief with the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service who has made a mark on Manitoba and its people in a number of ways.
When he retired in 2003, Johnson had been a firefighter for more than 40 years, 25 of which he served as a union executive holding positions from vice-president of the United Fire Fighters of Winnipeg to president of the Manitoba Professional Fire Fighters Association. He was an originating member of the Winnipeg Firefighter Safety Committee and is considered directly responsible for the advancement of safety for firefighters in Manitoba.
The founder of the Firefighters Burn Fund, he has also been its leader for the past 27 years. The burn fund has raised millions of dollars for burn treatment and fire and burn prevention. It has created two burn units in Winnipeg – the Manitoba Firefighters Burn unit (adults) and the Firefighters Burn Fund Children’s Burn Unit – which serve the citizens of Manitoba, northwest Ontario and Nunavut. The charity has also purchased advanced burn-care equipment for Winnipeg hospitals and has funded advanced training for many of Manitoba’s burn ward doctors and nurses at courses throughout North America.
Johnson was also instrumental in founding the Burn Camp, the first firefighter-sponsored camp of its kind in North America, where child burn survivors are able to enjoy a normal camp experience while learning to deal with the traumatic physical and psychological scars caused by a serious burn. Today, there are over three dozen Children’s burn camps in North America and the concept has spread to Europe and Asia.
Johnson has been a cub leader (nine years), a past president of the Winnipeg Ringette League and a ringette ice convener for Transcona. As the past president of the Manitoba Professional Fire Fighters Association, he advocated and lobbied for the reinstatement of heart and lung coverage under the Workers Compensation Act.
Johnson accepted the Laureate Award of Excellence from the Health Sciences Centre Research Foundation on behalf of the Firefighters Burn Fund.
