Owner of N.S. home hit by fatal fire would support mandatory sprinklers
HALIFAX — The owner of a Spryfield, N.S., home where a fatal fire claimed the lives of seven Syrian children last week says he’d support a new law requiring sprinklers in new homes.
But Jim Kehoe, president of Elegant Homes Ltd. in Halifax, doesn’t think such a law will ever happen. The added fire protection is mandatory in more than 30 British Columbia municipalities.
“I would support it because I think they would help but I don’t think it would ever happen,” said Kehoe. “It’s very, very expensive.”
Currently, the N.S. government and Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) have not said they’re seriously considering enacting laws to make them mandatory. But the provincial government could amend the Fire Safety Act to make residential sprinklers in new homes required by law. The province also allows for municipalities to enact a bylaw making them mandatory.
Brian Bickford, Canadian Automatic Sprinkler Association’s Atlantic regional manager, says one roadblock is the inexpensive cost associated with upgrading municipal water infrastructure. The other is pressure from property developers and homebuilders lobbying against a mandatory sprinkler law, he says.
Bickford says installing a residential sprinkler system in HRM isn’t a straightforward process. Water lines feeding into home properties are not large enough to provide adequate water pressure to run a sprinkler system. The solution is for HRM to increase the size of connecting waterlines by a fraction of an inch, he says.
“We’ve been trying to talk to HRM for years to try to service lots with a larger size water line, at least make it an option to a homeowner but they refuse to do it,” said Bickford.
“The difference is only in the cost of the pipe, which is minimal, and, secondly, the municipality wants to meter all the water that’s used by the system. But it’s also minimal because you only use the water when there’s a fire.”
For a HRM homeowner to install a sprinkler system they must also install a water reservoir in the home with a pump that allows for enough water pressure for the unit to work properly. The add-on costs between $1,500 to $2,000 above the cost of a sprinkler system, which ranges between $4,000 and $6,000, he says.
Since the tragedy, a Surrey, B.C., fire chief and Dayspring, Lunenburg County, firefighter have publicly called on the province to take action and make residential sprinklers law in new homes.
David Meldrum, deputy fire chief of Halifax Regional Fire and Emergency, says the department, along with Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs, also supports residential sprinklers and the municipality is studying the issue.
Tamara Barker Watson, president of Canadian Home Builders’ Association Nova Scotia chapter, says residents should be given the choice whether they want a sprinkler system. She also says the municipality’s water infrastructure doesn’t allow for easy or inexpensive installation of sprinkler systems.
“A lot of things have to change until it’s set up for that,” said Barker Watson, who’s also CEO of Whitestone Developments. “The added costs can take the affordability out of the houses.
“I don’t think anybody is against building safer, I just think that we have to have all our ducks in a row before we go half-cocked and say we make them mandatory.”