By PAM DOUGLAS – Brampton Guardian

BRAMPTON – Genesis Lodge would be a pile of rubble right now if it weren’t for a residential sprinkler alarm system, according to Brampton fire officials.

“This is the greatest success we could ever have,” said Brian Maltby, Brampton’s fire prevention division chief, of the sprinkler system. “We saved the people and we saved the building.”

A fire Thursday afternoon at the Church Street East house, a residential care facility for those living with mental illness, was quickly doused by one small sprinkler head in a sprinkler system installed by the operator 10 years ago.

Firefighters were on scene within minutes, but found only a smouldering mattress, which, Peel police say, had been deliberately set alight by one of the home’s residents.

The fire was contained to a second-floor bedroom in the 1850s house and everyone inside escaped. The building was turned into a lodging house 20 years ago and had just recently been designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

Brampton firefighters have been advocating for years that sprinkler systems be made mandatory in all homes, pointing out that they save lives and minimize damage.

Six staff and 14 of the 19 residents who live in the three-storey house were inside when the fire started. Staff was praised by Maltby for implementing their emergency procedures and getting everyone out safely. There were no injuries. Even the resident bird and cat are fine.

Mohammed Khan, 47, a resident of the home, was charged by Peel police with arson the same day.

The evacuated residents spent the night in a local motel, but it was hoped they would be able to return home yesterday or today.

“Everybody’s distraught and shaken by the experience,” said Natalie Smith, an intake worker at the home. “This has never, ever happened. This is an upset for their normal routine of life.”

Typically, such a fire would have forced the occupants out for months, Maltby pointed out.

“They will hopefully be back home by tonight or tomorrow,” he said Thursday.

It’s the perfect example of the effectiveness of a residential sprinkler system, he said.

“We’re definitely grateful for the sprinkler system that we have set up,” Smith said, adding the safety of the residents was uppermost in all of the staff’s minds.

A day after the scare, there was very little to indicate there was a fire in the old house. The walls, which would in a typical fire be blackened by smoke, were untouched by the blaze, even the walls right by the bed, Maltby pointed out.

Maltby pointed to toiletries sitting on a dresser near the bed.

“In a normal fire, they would all be melted,” he said.

Maltby also praised a staff worker who pulled a burning blanket off the bed and threw it onto the adjacent fire escape, then grabbed a fire extinguisher as the alarm sounded.

“The sprinkler went off while she was in the room,” said Brampton fire investigator Michael Roess. She didn’t use the extinguisher, they said, and instead shut the bedroom door, which contained any smoke generated by the burning mattress and was exactly the right thing do to, Maltby said.

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