By Nick Kuhl – Leduc Representative

Major fires that can spread from home to home in crowded neighbourhoods and cause mass chaos are hopefully a thing of the past.

The Alberta government announced new measures last month that will tighten building and fire codes on new housing developments in the province, in an effort to reduce and eliminate high-intensity residential fires.

“Any change to the code that can reduce the risk of fire and improve life safety is welcomed,” said Bob Scott, deputy fire chief for Leduc fire services.

Multi-family buildings will now be required to add more sprinklers in balconies, attics and crawl spaces –– sections that tend to swell fire.

“Those are areas where the construction tends to be more open and exposed to fire spreading rapidly,” Scott said. “By having a sprinkler in those locations, it can actually suppress the fire quite quickly.”

Additionally, fire-resistant gypsum wallboard will now be required under vinyl siding in new construction projects, replacing faster-burning oriented strandboard that had been previously used.

“What that does is start to absorb the heat and tends to slow the progress of the fire,” Scott explains.

These changes were part of the 22 recommendations, 18 of which were accepted, that were proposed by a group of emergency workers, fire departments and the Safety Codes Council.

They were also partially prompted by the devastating 18-home fire in Edmonton’s MacEwan neighbourhood in July 2007, one of the city’s largest fires on record, which although deemed to be arson, spread rapidly due to lax building codes and sub-standard materials.

“The older construction –– where we used solid pieces of lumber –– don’t fail. They’re able to withstand fire longer and don’t fail as quickly as the new construction does,” Scott said. “That was a huge contributing factor in the major fire that Edmonton had last year. Homes are so close together that if a fire was to start in one home and was to be coming out of a window, there is still potential for the fire to move up and into the attic of a neighbouring home.”

New homes with attached garages will now also be required to have fire detectors installed along with the aforementioned gypsum wallboard.

“We have vehicles and other things in garages that can start on fire that could basically burn undetected for some period of time,” Scott said. “It’s important because right now the code does not require a smoke alarm in attached garages.”

Retrofitting older homes is a challenge, Scott added, but it is possible to take some precautions as well.

“We recommend installing more than just the basic smoke alarms in homes,” he said. “Where people sleep with doors closed in bedrooms, there should be a smoke alarm installed in the bedroom as well as outside in the hallways.”

Currently, homes are only required to have one smoke alarm per floor and there is no need to change the legislation, Scott explains.

“Education is more important right now,” he said. “If we continue to work on helping people understand the importance of having smoke alarms throughout their home, it can make a big difference. It (the new codes) still doesn’t take away from the need for people to be fire aware and minimize any risk at home.”

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