4 — Wednesday, September 20, 1995 - North Shore News

FIREF|

THE DEBATE was fiery
among supporters and oppo-

_fents of mandatory building
sprinklering in North
Vancouver City.

People on both sides of the issue
ata Sept. 11 meeting were in agree-
ment that sprinklers do save lives.
But, at what cost? And is the invest-
ment worth it?

‘ Gregg Lowes, technical services ‘*:

‘coordinator for the B.C. office of
‘the Canadian Homebuiiders*
Association, presented a report by
the Canadian Mortgage and
Housing Commission that ques-
tions the necessity of sprinklers.

The cost per life saved. accord-
ing to one graph, is $38 million for
sprinklers, while the cost per life
saved by minimizing the flamma-
bility of children’s sleepwear is
about $2.5 million. ©

Lowes says he is concerned that

’ skeptics of the cost-effectiveness of
a mandatory. sprinklering bylaw
could be misinterpreted and seen as

‘putting a dollar value to 4 human
life.

“The debate over mandatory res:
idential sprinklering. is one that is
subject to a Serious manipulation of

. fact ‘at all times, as well as some
_ very strong Opinion and emotions,”
- said Lowes. ;

Lowes said it is too costly to
demand that all residential dwellings
be fitted with sprinkler systems,

* He said the total. cost to new
homeowners .and tenants if sprin-
klers had been installed in all new
houses between 1981-1990 would
be $1.89 billion Canada-wide.

According .to -the National

- Research Council the cost to install
sprinklers in single-family homes is

WV plant
cited for —
overflows |

aS From page 3 '

the: work on the relief: Sewer into
smaller . projects could’ “add to the
ultimate cost.’

Coun. Pat, Boname was ‘con-.-

; cerned that the Lions’ Gate. treat-
ment plant has been identified by
, the provincial =
repeatedly exceeding its permitted ;
flows of treated sewage into the
ocean.
So are many other communities
in the province, said Walker... ;
". Boname said she was. glad that’
West Vancouver is ‘starting to look
“at the problem closer to its source.
“We probably should have’been
doing (his s years ago,” she said.

“government . as

| 2442 Haywood Ave.

sSHTERS BACK INITIATIVE

NORTH VANCOUVER
CITY COUNCIL
By Bob Mackin

about $1.50 per square foot.

An estimated 42 people across
the country would have been saved
if sprinklers had been installed in
1981-1990.

By comparison, 50 people died
in Canada ‘asa result of lightning
strikes between 1979 and 1989.

Retired Vancouver Fire
Department chief Don. Pamplin —
an advocate: of mandatory sprink-
fering — countered, “If you had a
seria) killer, going out.and killing
400 people a year, and that: serial
killer was concentrating on children
under five and seniors ... what kind
of outcry do you think you, would
have in this country?

;, “We do have a serial Killer and it
is called fire."

Earlier in the inecting. a nine-.

minute video of .a_ 1991
Philadelphia office tower fire was
. shown to bolster the pro-sprinkler-
ing argument.

The towering inferno began i ina
22nd-floor office under renovation
but was halted almost 20 hours later
and eight storeys up by # bank of
automatic.sprinklers..

Had sprinklers been installed on

the 22nd floor, the fire may have —

required little fire. department inter-
vention, 77.7

Said North Vancouver City Fire
Department assistant chief! Dave
Burgess, A sprinkler system cannot
replace a well- trained, — well-
equipped, professional | fire depart-
ment. But-all the firefighters in the
world cannot prevent what happens

Sy

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in the first five-to-10 minutes of a
fire.”

But, he added, sprinklers can,”

Pamplin explained the concept
of flashover, firefighting jargon for
“when all the carpets, draperies,
furniture, everything in the room
reaches the point of ignition.”

He siid flashover takes about
nine minutes, but can happen as
soon as four minutes because of
modem synthetic materials.

Firefighters’ response generally
takes up.to 15 minutes from first
report to arrival of i a crew on the
premises,

By comparison, smoke ‘alarms
begin sounding within 35-45. sec-
onds, while: top-of-the line sprin-
klers begin within a minute of fire
detection. ;

Fire chiefs — from
Vancouver District and
Vancouver also attended the meet-
ing and spoke in support of Burgess.

Coun. Darrell Mussatto asked
Burgess whether purchasing auto-
matic cardiac defibrillator for North
Vancouver fire trucks would be 3
better - investment for — North
Vancouver citizens, since the fire
department deals with more med-
ical calls involving heart attacks,
strokes and respiratory problems

North

than fires, Mussatto is a paramedic °

with the B.C. Ambulance Service.

Council's - policy committee
moved to consider a bylaw. that
requires sprinklers. be installed in
all buildings and residential occu-
pancies with more than two
dwelling units,

Two attempts to. amend the

‘dwelling threshold to three units,

were unsuccessful. A staff report
will be submitted to council by
Nov. 20.

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