By Jordie Dwyer – Fort Record

Years of work and lobbying by the province’s fire chiefs on changing the fire code has paid dividends.

Following the fire that destroyed a large number of homes last July in Edmonton, the province struck a working group to look into what needs to be done to prevent a similar fire in the future.

The High-Intensity Residential Fires Working Group released its final report on May 23 and the government will work immediately to put 18 of the group’s 22 recommendations in place.

“I was actually quite pleased,” Fort Saskatchewan Fire Chief Brian Parker said, when asked for his initial reaction to the report.

“What they have addressed is the fire spread itself.”

There are four major changes to the building code, which the province is hoping to have in place for the spring of 2009. These are: making fire-resistant gypsum wallboard mandatory under siding in homes that are 1.2 metres or less apart; new homes with attached garages must have fire detectors and the fire-resistant gypsum wallboard; sprinklers will be required in attics, crawl spaces and on balconies of all multi-family buildings; and changes to the way things are done on construction sites in order to promote fire safety and prevent arson.

“(Attics and crawl spaces) are all a path for fire travel. What the sprinklers do is slow or stop a fire. The drywall will also stop a fire, by not having it breach through the siding or by stopping one in the garage from reaching the house,” said Parker.

“And we know, that some of the larger apartment fires we have seen somehow started on balconies, so sprinklers will provide some early protection on that basis.”

Parker added the changes are being done to prevent another large residential fire.

“We just can’t have something like that happen again. Now, there will be whole subdivisions built with these protections,” he said.

“They did some pretty aggressive work on this report and fire chiefs have been working for a long time to either get more space between homes or build in more fire protection. There have been some building products which have been a concern, but the drywall will help in that.”

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