LANGLEY — The fire at a Langley condominium complex that left dozens homeless on Sunday likely wouldn’t have taken hold if it had been built under newer practices for placing additional sprinklers in four-storey wood-frame buildings, according to the developer who built the structure.
“It’s a building code issue,” said Peter Warkentin, a partner in Abbotsford-based builder Quadra Homes, which developed the Paddington Station building in the 5600-block of 210A Street in downtown Langley that was completed in 2009.
“The national building code does not require sprinklers on decks or in attics on four-storey buildings,” Warkentin said, adding that five- and six-storey wood-frame buildings do require –sprinklers in those areas.
Since about 2012, however, Warkentin said more municipal building inspectors have been directing the use of sprinklers on balconies and in attics, regardless of whether they are required in the building code, recognizing that it is a fire-safety concern.
“It varies by municipality,” Warkentin said.
More builders are placing sprinkler systems on decks and in attics of three- and four-storey buildings as a matter of course.
Residents in the Paddington Station development were alerted to the fire at 10 a.m. Sunday by smoke coming from a fourth-floor unit. The fire spread quickly.
To Warkentin, it looked like the fire started on a balcony and then burned up into and over the roof, areas that didn’t have sprinklers and weren’t required to.
“Today, that probably wouldn’t happen,” Warkentin said of the fire in Langley.
Fire safety was raised as a concern in 2009, when B.C. changed its building code to allow for wood-frame buildings up to six storeys in height.
That was part of its Wood First strategy to encourage the use of more wood in construction as a means to boost the forest industry.
A pair of fires at large wood-frame buildings under construction in Metro Vancouver in 2008 and 2009, particularly the May 2009 blaze in Richmond that burned down the first project in B.C. built to the new six-storey limit, prompted tighter restrictions for fire safety, including the addition of sprinklers at earlier stages of construction.
One outstanding concern of the Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C. was the lack of tall-enough rescue ladders being used by municipalities.
To residents on the scene at Paddington Station on Sunday, it appeared that the Langley fire department initially had difficulty reaching the problem spot and had to wait for a ladder truck to get at the flames, said Geoffrey Holland, a resident of the building’s fourth floor.
“If they had the ladder truck here immediately, they may have been able to knock it down,” said Holland.
Holland said that once the fire reached the roof it became uncontrollable, sending flames several metres high and creating a black plume of smoke that was visible for a wide area.
Many of the residents who got out of the building escaped in only the clothes they were wearing, some in pyjamas and bathrobes.
All residents of the building got out safely.
Rory Thompson, fire chief for the City of Langley, said two firefighters and a resident rescued from the top floor were all taken to hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation.
