Jason Markusoff – Calgary Herald

EDMONTON – Some new Alberta fire-safety rules would have helped reduce the wide-scale damage of a blaze that devoured dozens of townhouse duplexes in south Edmonton last year, Edmonton Fire Chief Randy Wolsey said today.

The most talked-about change the government announced today was the requirement that fire-resistant drywall be placed under vinyl sidings on homes within 1.2 metres of a property line. But the MacEwan Green homes were spread farther apart. Wolsey, who for years has pushed for quick reforms to building codes, said other measures in Municipal Affairs Minister Ray Danyluk’s wide-ranging reforms would have made a difference in last July’s inferno.

“Could we have reduced that tragedy at MacEwan Green? The answer is absolutely we could have, with better construction-site safety,” the chief told reporters.

Fewer than one in five new homes are built close enough together to be covered by the new barrier requirements, but other reforms will have more sweeping effect – particularly, one that requires all garages to have gypsum walls and fire detectors. Residential construction sites, where many multi-home blazes like MacEwan begin, will now be overseen more closely by fire departments and city officials.

Danyluk estimated the changes might add between $5,000 and $10,000 to the cost of some new homes, although the province’s leading homebuilders’ group said it will take days or weeks to determine the price impact.

“Those cost implications are there if you weren’t planning to do it, but there are a lot of homes that are already gyp-rocking their garages,” the minister said.

The changes to fire and building codes will be in place next year, he predicted. Alberta normally follows the lead of national code updates, but those wouldn’t have been announced until 2010 and wouldn’t have taken effect until two or five years afterwards.

“We need to have confidence in the product that we’re building,” Danyluk said.

The rules stem from a report completed last fall by a fire and safety task force, ordered to look at ways of stopping high-intensity residential fires that have become more common in the age of cheaper building materials and more densely packed subdivisions.

The Stelmach government adopted 18 of the group’s 22 recommendations, rejecting one that would give fire officials more oversight of plans for subdivisions and major developments. It also pledged to study further a call for tighter rules on homes spread farther apart than 1.2 metres. Wolsey admitted that was a change he wanted, but said he understands that scientific research doesn’t currently back his opinions.

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