Sprinklers and fire doors will have to be installed earlier in Surrey’s large wood-frame developments under new rules being brought in by the city’s fire chief.
Len Garis said he spearheaded the development of new guidelines because of concerns raised by several devastating residential construction fires in wood-frame buildings in the Lower Mainland.
These included the massive Remy fire in Richmond in May, and thesimilar Quattro fire in Surrey in 2008.
Garis, who is also president of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C., worked with developers and a fire protection expert to develop a set of fire safety guidelines that are expected to be finalized and in place in about a week’s time.
Under the new rules, contractors will be required to submit detailed fire safety plans during the permit approval stage, Garis said. Fire safety plans have always been required, but the new Surrey guidelines formalize and fully develop the requirements of the plan. Garis is urging other fire departments to follow Surrey’s lead.
“As the president [of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C.], I will be sharing these guidelines with my colleagues, and advising them that they might want to take these guidelines, or portions of them, very seriously in their communities to try to avoid some of the things we’ve seen in our experience in Surrey and Richmond,” Garis said.
He said that as custodians of the B.C. Fire Services Act, fire chiefs in all cities have the authority to implement changes such as Surrey’s.
In May, one of B.C.’s first six-storey, wood-frame buildings burned to the ground in a massive fire at the Remy project in Richmond.
The flames could be seen for miles around, and spot fires threatened 10 homes in the area when sparks ignited.
In Surrey, a construction fire destroyed the $625-million Quattro condominium development in October 2008.
The provincial government is waiting to find out how the Remy fire started before considering any changes to the building code, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Mines, which oversees the building code, said in a statement.
“Once the fire investigation is complete and we know the cause, we will look at the evidence and determine what, if any, further action may be required on construction fire safety,” the statement reads.
But Garis isn’t waiting for provincial changes, and is going ahead with strategies designed to prevent construction fires, which occur when wooden structures are at their most vulnerable and present the greatest risk to surrounding buildings.
The cause of the May 3 fire in Richmond is still undetermined and city officials do not know when they might have an answer, if ever, Richmond’s corporate communication officer Kim Decker said.
Meanwhile, more proposals for taller, wood-frame buildings are being accepted, including a six-storey, wood-frame building proposed for Vancouver – a $30.6-million social housing project slated for 1050 Expo Blvd.
One of the strategies included in the new Surrey guidelines is installing sprinklers as each floor is built, and turning them on when workers go home for the night.
Another is to install fire doors earlier and close them when workers are not on site. Better fire safety education and supervision during hot work, such as soldering, and more active after-hours security are also proposed.
“If there is any soldering or welding where sparks or arcs occur, [workers should] make sure that the area is wetted down, and that people are responsible for looking after that,” Garis said.
“We’re anticipating that there will be a greater emphasis on site security and site supervision. Site security after hours will actually be moving through the site looking for potential problems and making sure that they are corrected.”
Any fires that do occur will be smaller, be more contained and then will potentially be extinguished by these systems, Garis said.
The fire department will enforce the fire safety plans with random inspections, Garis said.
“If the contractor is not [following the guidelines], we can ask for an injunction under the courts; in some cases we can impose the requirements if they’re not being met and we can bill that back,” Garis said.
“There are a lot of consequences that can be applied to make sure that compliance occurs.”
Garis said he doesn’t think the new rules will be significantly more expensive for developers.
“We all are mindful that we’re having challenges with [a shortage of] low-cost housing and we want to see the economy stimulated wherever possible, and to try to create or sustain jobs in the forest industry,” he said.
Previously, wood-frame buildings were limited to four storeys due to fire risk and structural concerns. The code was changed in 2009 as part of the B.C. Wood First Act, which aimed to stimulate the province’s timber industry.
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