Fire chief lobbies for mandatory residential sprinkler systems

Ontario should learn from the experience in Vancouver, where installation of residential sprinkler systems contained roughly 90% of fires, and reduced average property damage to a fraction of the average fire loss per unsprinkled incident (Cdn$1,065 from Cdn$13,937), Toronto fire chief William A. Stewart told the Insurance Brokers of Toronto Region luncheon. More than 300 North American jurisdictions have legislation in place making residential fire sprinklers mandatory, but Ontario is not one of them, Stewart told the crowd.In Toronto, between 1994 and 2005, 237 deaths and 2,825 injuries occurred in residential fires, he noted. During the same period, residential fires accounted for significant property losses valued at more than Cdn$314 million in Toronto.It can take upwards of six to eight minutes for a rescue crew to arrive on the scene of a fire, but a residence can be engulfed in flames in less than three minutes. Sprinkler systems, Stewart said, can contain a fire in less than two minutes. With the use of sprinkler systems, damage to the home is restricted to the area in which the fire originated. Because of their quick response time, smaller flow and lower pressure, sprinklers also reduce water damage that may result from the use of fire crew’s hoses. Stewart ended his presentation by announcing that earlier in the day he received an email from Premier Dalton McGuinty. He said the Premier in his letter expressed interest in exploring the possibility of making sprinkler systems a requirement in residential dwellings three storeys or higher.