An empty lot on Glebe Avenue is all that remains of a building destroyed by fire in January.
Despite smoke detectors, rigorous fire code regulations and an elite fire service, a recent string of fires in Ottawa has left more than 200 people homeless and caused millions of dollars in damage.
While the number of residential fires may be down from previous years, statistics indicate they are affecting multi-unit dwellings disproportionately. Since November, eight multi-unit dwellings have been damaged.
Statistics aren’t yet available for 2010, but in 2009 downtown fires caused almost $22 million more in damages than in 2008.
According to city documents, at least five of the buildings were built before the current building and fire codes came into effect in 1975, and lack fire barriers and updated electrical wiring.
In 2005, Ontario started a retrofit program to bring older multi-unit buildings up to code.
Since then, the city of Ottawa has brought 2,191 buildings up to code.
However, Sean Tracey, the Canadian regional manager of the National Fire Prevention Association, says that the ability of the city to regulate these buildings is limited.
“There is no obligation other than on request or complaint for the city’s fire inspectors to go out and inspect, and to be frank, they are understaffed to do this,” he says.
Tracey says the ideal inspector- to-population ratio is one inspector for every 15,000 people. With more than 800,000 residents, he says Ottawa should have about 54 inspectors rather than 33.
“As well, they can only inspect common areas and this is not where the fires first originate. Unfortunately, the requirements for inspections rest on the property owners and the effectiveness of this varies greatly.”
Tracey says this is a major legislative gap because 83 per cent of fire fatalities occur in residential properties. With more regulation, he says these could be avoided.
Starting April 1, all new residential buildings over three storeys in Ontario will require sprinkler systems.
Because the new rules will only apply to new construction, Ottawa deputy fire chief Bruce Montone says they will have limited impact.
“The new rules do nothing for those buildings that already exist,” he says. “Fire deaths are huge in buildings three storeys and less: that’s where we need to focus our time. When you only have three minutes to escape, there needs to be another means to give you more time.”
Montone says that the evidence supporting the effectiveness of sprinklers is overwhelming.
“If you look at fire losses where there are sprinklers, the average loss is reduced by over 90 per cent,” says Montone. “It’s a no brainer.”
He says that legislation should apply to all new buildings because it only adds one per cent to building costs and existing buildings should be subject to a retrofit program similar to the one initiated in 2005 to bring older buildings up to building codes.
Montone says the reason the new sprinkler legislation will be applied so narrowly is due to what some call a “prohibitive cost.”
“I have no sympathy for rooming house owners because they are in the business of making money, why shouldn’t they spend some of that money to reduce fire risk,” says Montone.
But one victim, Adenna Neverson, says fires don’t just damage buildings.
After a Jan. 23 rowhouse fire on Mann Avenue that affected 28 people, Neverson and her youngest daughter were left homeless, with no financial compensation for the loss of their belongings.
The fire affected more than her possessions. She says her daughter, Natasha, who is in Grade 6, still jumps up in the middle of the night and asks where the fire is.
Neverson says the fire started outside her neighbour’s apartment, where they smoke and throw their cigarette butts. Neverson says she complained to the city about residents smoking in the public housing building, but there was nothing they could do.
“When you are in public housing it doesn’t matter if you want to smoke, it shouldn’t be inside,” she says. “You’re not only putting your own life at risk.”
Since the fire did not start at Neverson’s apartment, sprinklers could have made a critical difference in containing the fire and prevented her losses.
Ottawa Fire Services has been active in lobbying the provincial government to require all occupancies install sprinkler systems.
“If there were sprinklers in all occupancies there is no question in my mind that you would not see any more of the kind of tragedies that we’ve seen,” says Montone.