B.C. firefighters raise concerns over new stairway building code

Buildings in B.C. that are under six storeys will no longer be required to have more than one egress staircase, a change that has firefighters concerned about safety.

B.C. Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon announced the change to the provincial building code last week.

He says the change will help with the province’s housing crisis.

Requiring only a single staircase leaves more space for housing units, and makes six-storey buildings viable on smaller lots.

But the negatives outweigh any positives, according to Jason Cairney, the second vice-president of the Fire Chiefs Association of B.C.

“It’s significantly concerning,” he said. “It definitely impacts our operations and the safety of occupants.”

He says during a fire, 42 per cent of the time smoke impacts primary egress pathways. Sixty-eight per cent of fire-related deaths are due to smoke inhalation.

“That creates a significant concern for us and people's ability to egress through these staircases when there’s only one of them,” he says.

The province did consult with the B.C. Professional Fire Fighters Association before making the change.

“We did feel like this was going to happen, regardless,” said Todd Scheirling, the president of the BCPFFA. “We did say, ‘Let's take a pause and defer this to the national building code.'”

Kahlon says the province developed options that make the code more workable after listening to firefighters' concerns.

“To ensure continuing safety for residents, all new single-egress designed buildings will require specific fire safety measures, including sprinklers, smoke management systems and wide stairwells,” Kahlon said in a statement to CTV News.

But Cairney says statistics gathered over the past five years show that fire prevention systems only work 40 per cent of the time.

Kahlon also points to similar designs in major cities like New York and Seattle.

But Cairney argues those locations are better equipped to deal with fires.

"They've set themselves up specifically for it," he said. "They have things like fire hydrants on every corner and response times that they meet."

B.C.’s building codes do not apply in the City of Vancouver, but city Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung plans to put a motion forward to follow the province's lead.

“I’ve been speaking with architects and small builders who have indicated what a constraint (the two-staircase requirement) is in terms of delivering really better quality housing, especially family-sized units and units that have access to more daylight,” she said.