The City of Niagara Falls has been a leader when it comes to protecting residents living in retirement and long- term care homes and now the rest of the province is following its example.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services announced Ontario is taking steps to ensure these facilities are equipped with sprinklers.
“Right now it’s not a question of if, but when sprinklers will be coming,” said deputy fire Chief Jim Jessop, who was among the invited guests during Wednesday’s announcement by Madeline Meilleur, minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services, and Linda Jeffrey, minister Responsible for Seniors.
Last month, Premier Dalton McGuinty met with members of the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs to discuss sprinklers and other ways to ensure fire safety.
In April, Ontario created a technical advisory committee that will make recommendations on a multi-pronged strategy for fire safety that includes installation of sprinklers in retirement homes, long-term care facilities and homes housing vulnerable individuals, along with other measures such as training, inspections and automatic door closers.
“We look forward to working with the government on completing the technical consultation and we thank the premier for expediting the process,” said Jessop.
The government has expedited t his process by f our months to make sure the technical committee delivers its ini- tial recommendations in the fall and has committed to making sure more retirement and longterm care homes across the province are equipped with sprinklers.
“This is a major stop forward in improving fire safety for seniors in the province of Ontario,” said Jessop.
He noted the City of Niagara Falls took a proactive approach to fire safety following a fire at Cavendish Manor in 2008. Niagara Falls was the first city in Ontario to have all of its seniors’ homes equipped with sprinklers.
“It ’ s something t hat we worked hard on and it was fully supported by city council and staff,” said Jessop. “We did it because of the lessons we learned at Cavendish Manor. Seniors in the rest of the province will be afforded the same level of fire protection that seniors in Niagara Falls currently enjoy.”
The fire at Cavendish Manor on May 14, 2008, sent several people to hospital, but there were no serious injuries.
Fire officials contend that if the fire had taken place at night there would have been a number of fatalities because the 100-yearold building was not equipped with an automatic sprinkler system.
Jessop suspects a new law regarding the installation of sprinklers could come into affect in about a year and likely be phased in over a three-year period.