Canada's Building Codes Questioned After Massive Blaze

"Canada needs far tougher building codes, Edmonton's fire department chief said Sunday after a fire torched a large condominium under construction and nine other homes in Edmonton over the weekend, causing an estimated $25-million in damage.

'There needs to be a whole change in philosophy for building codes,' Chief Randy Wolsey said in an interview, explaining that flammable material, such as vinyl siding, helps fires to spread quickly.

Mr. Wolsey called for immediate, interim changes to the country's building codes, particularly in Alberta, where a massive building boom is creating suburb after suburb of homes that he says are less safe than they appear.

The giant fire in south Edmonton began Saturday just after 5 a.m., first sparked by a yet unknown cause in a 149-unit wood frame condominium that was unfinished and unoccupied. The brutal blaze quickly jumped to neighbouring residences, razing nine duplexes and leaving 18 families homeless. It also caused severe damage to 38 other duplexes, and exterior damage – such as melted vinyl siding – to an additional 30 duplexes.

The nature of residential fires has changed dramatically in the past decade, but building codes in Canada, originating in the years after the Second World War, are unable to deal with the current reality, Mr. Wolsey said.

Building codes have been designed to quell 'inside out' fires – blazes that engulf a home's interior before spreading through the walls, and potentially to other residences.

However, because of technological advances, such as lighter, cheaper and more durable building materials, devastating fires now are often 'outside in' fires, as was the case in Edmonton. Such fires devour vinyl siding, which melts quickly and conducts the flames further, so they then tear through tar paper and the cheap material made of wood strands and glue found beneath. These materials burn hot, propagating the fire.

Compounding the problem is the fact that many new homes in identical suburbs across Canada are built extremely close together, allowing flames to hop from house to house like a killer disease."