Crown wants up to 5 years in prison for man after fatal rooming house fire

WATCH ABOVE: A man could face up to five years in prison for a fire in 2011. There were warnings, so should inspectors have more power? Christina Stevens reports.

TORONTO – The sentencing hearing for a man charged with criminal negligence causing death after a rooming house fire near Humber College continued Monday.

There were known hazards compiled during six inspections done on the building prior to the fire. Now safety experts say inspectors need more authority to force misbehaving landlords to comply with reports.

“The vast majority of cases the inspectors report get acted upon right away,” Brian Patterson, president of the Ontario Safety League said in an interview Monday.

“A second or third report at the same location should be putting up a big flag, both for enforcement and for a fine. So when the landlord ignores two reports, or even one, I think we need to be able to move quickly as to compliance and follow up.”

Toronto Fire Services did take some action however and charged Jasvir Singh under the Fire Code but those charges are still going through the courts three years after the fire.

Toronto Fire Services Captain Kathy Robertson said inspections generally look for second exits from every floor, proper fire separation between floors, stairway separations, working smoke alarms, and interconnected smoke alarms. She couldn’t say whether the rooming house in question had any of those because it’s still before the courts.

And inspectors can shut rooming houses down but it’s difficult and even harder to find the problem houses to begin with.

“Rooming houses are a huge problem,” she said. “Unfortunately we don’t have the staff to go knocking door to door to find these houses. We receive a complaint and as we receive a complaint, they’re a top priority and we go out and conduct an investigation immediately.”

She said inspectors have a zero tolerance for rooming houses and charges can be laid against owners of an illegal rooming house the same day as the inspection.  The zero tolerance policy was not in effect in 2011, Robertson said.

The inspectors’ reports compiled known hazards in the building including six students living in one room, a smoke alarm on the kitchen counter with the battery in backwards and a hot plate and toaster oven sitting on the hardwood floor.

The house, located near Finch Avenue West and John Garland Boulevard caught fire in March, 2011 after a hot plate was left on a wood floor.   Karnail Singh Dhaliwal was pronounced dead at the scene.

Mandeep Sidh was in the home at the time and noticed the fire when she opened her bedroom door to check on her laundry.

“The moment I opened my bedroom door, I could literally see the flames coming out hitting the opposite door,” she said. “We just tried to make an escape.”

She said she repeatedly complained about the landlord but said inspectors did nothing except issue warnings.

“Take some actions, something,” she said. “Warnings six times doesn’t mean anything. They should have taken some action after the first warning.”

– With files from Christina Stevens