Sprinkler systems required for retirement homes

No flaw in this new provincial law

By Mark Schadenberg

At the local level and province-wide, our by-laws, laws, codes and guidelines pertaining to home construction for single-family dwelling and multi-residential, can be described as both comprehensive and convoluted.

However, when it’s a matter of safety, I think the introduction of stringent laws is important – smoke detectors, sprinkler systems, carbon monoxide, and knob-and-tube wiring.

Rules would be over-bearing if it was introduced that all homes needed a water softener and a security system with accompanying video cameras.

On the horizon in Ontario will hopefully be a law requiring homes to have carbon monoxide detectors. Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman has been pushing a private-member bill for several years.

One law that has taken effect in Ontario is a bill passed requiring all nursing homes to have water sprinklers. A very good idea? Most certainly. I would actually want to wonder why this was not the rule before.

Here's a link to The Toronto Star story:
http://www.thestar.com/news/queenspark/2013/05/06/sprinkler_in_seniors_homes_to_be_mandatory_in_ontario.html

Here’s The London Free Press version of the story:

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Ontario becomes first province to require sprinklers in every retirement and nursing home

By Jennifer O'Brien, The London Free Press

Monday, May 6, 2013

LONDON -- Years of lobbying by London’s deputy fire chief paid off Monday when Premier Kathleen Wynne (pictured) announced automatic fire sprinklers will be mandatory at retirement and nursing homes.

“I’m absolutely relieved that this has finally come to fruition,” Jim Jessop said. “What sprinklers will do is absolutely increase the level of safety in these vulnerable occupancies.”

Ontario will become the first province in Canada to require sprinklers be added to older facilities — including homes for disabled residents — built before the province made them mandatory in 1998.

Jessop has been fighting for stronger sprinkler laws since 2008, after a daytime blaze tore through a retirement home in Niagara Falls, where he was deputy chief at the time. Eleven people were taken to hospital for treatment.

More residents could have been injured or killed if the fire had occurred at night, Jessop said.

“The biggest thing (sprinklers) do is contain the fire and suppress the smoke and toxic acid that will primarily kill the residents,” he said.

“There has never been a multi-fatal fire in a vulnerable occupancy with sprinklers in it.”

The fire code changes take into account recommendations from four inquests, Jessop said.

Retirement homes, nursing homes and group homes will have about five years to complete the potentially costly changes to their buildings.

Several retirement homes in London — including Queen’s Village on Queens Ave. and the Waverly on Grand Ave. — have already added sprinklers.

“We had them put in about five years ago,” said Rouchelle Gooden, general manager of Waverly. “We recognized it’s a good safety measure to enhance the protection for our residents.”

FACILITY INSPECTIONS

At least six of London’s 36 retirement and nursing homes don’t have sprinkler systems. The city’s fire department will be doing inspections and assessments and help create plans for facilities this summer.

Adding a sprinkler system isn’t as simple as it sounds, said the owner of one retirement home institution.

“There’s a lot involved. The cost would be astronomical,” said Kathleen Hobden, owner of Ashwood Manor, a one-floor building.

“I don’t have a problem getting people out of immediate harm’s way, there’s 24-hour staff on . . . the last thing we’d do is put our residents at risk, so we do everything short of sprinklers (to keep them safe).”

The Ontario Professional Firefighters Association hasn’t exactly welcomed the news either. It’s concerned the addition of sprinklers could lead to calls for fewer firefighters.

“We are not against (sprinklers) or against any kind of safety initiative . . . but we don’t want fire chiefs saying we need less firefighters to respond,” association vice-president Jim Holmes said.

“Sprinklers don’t extinguish the fire, or remove smoke or rescue people.”

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BY THE NUMBERS

Care facilities in London that fall under the sprinkler laws:

Facilities: 36

Those with sprinkler systems: 26

Those with partial sprinkler systems: 4

Those without: 6

THE LINK:

http://www.lfpress.com/2013/05/06/ontario-becomes-first-province-to-require-sprinklers-in-every-retirement-and-nursing-home

Mark Schadenberg

Sales Representative

Royal LePage Triland Realty

757 Dundas St, Woodstock

www.wesellwoodstock.com

(519) 537-1553, cell or text

www.marksells.ca

www.markroyallepage.blogspot.com

Email: mschadenberg@rogers.com

Twitter: markroyallepage

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