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.
It’s understandable and extremely good to be distrustful of the motives of politicians. Genuinely, I applaud you for not trusting them blindly.
But in this case especially, Revi Kahlon and the other NDP members who worked on this have provided overwhelming evidence (facts) for the safety of single stairwell designs. Their evidence is coming from Europe and asia who have used these for a long time and still have better fire safety than we do in north america, they also have evidence from Seattle, which implemented similar changes and has found no measurable increase in fatalities or injuries from fires.
Unfortunately, it’s my opinion the Fire Chiefs Association has provided limited supportive data to counter the mountain of evidence that exists for switching to single stairwell, and that’s before even considering additional safety measures like pressurized/ventilated hallways, external fire exits, fire barriers, and high flow per-apartment sprinkler systems.
Positive pressure hallways/staircases would make a huge impact on the spread of smoke. Smoke would still be an issue if the fire was in the hall itself, but no amount of staircases can help you if you can’t access them. The quote from the Fire Chiefs Association really makes me think we’re using the second staircase to skimp on every other aspect of fire safety.