New B.C. building code regulations allowing structures under six storeys to have just one egress stairway are being touted as a way to build more housing, but some fire officials are already concerned.
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon announced the changes last week, saying the change will make it possible to build housing projects on smaller lots with greater flexibility for multi-bedroom apartments, adding housing density in areas of transit-oriented developments.
The concept has its fans. Bryn Davidson, lead designer at Lanefab Design Build, said the practice is already common outside of North America.
“(It) allows for a really nice form of urbanism where you can have a bunch of units wrapped around a single stair,” he said.
“And each of those units can have multiple bedrooms with windows, it can have balconies, it can have a breeze-through, and you can fit it onto small properties … It’s a small change, but one that has a big impact on the livability and quality of buildings.”
Firefighters, however, have raised concerns.
The B.C. Professional Fire Fighters’ Association and the Fire Chiefs’ Association of B.C. have released a joint statement warning the new code could pose a “significant risk to life safety.”
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“Much like smoke alarms and carbon monoxide alarms, proper exiting is known to have saved thousands of lives and remains the fundamental building block to life safety,” the statement reads.
“Layered fire prevention measures encompassing multiple means of egress, fire suppression systems, fire-rated construction, automatic fire alarm systems, compartmentalization, and many other codes provide a reasonable, widely accepted, and nationally developed level of protection.”
The statement goes on to note that the International Codes Council rejected a similar proposed change in May, and criticized the provincial government for making the change outside of Canada’s national code development process.
“B.C.’s planned adoption of single-egress stairways is moving too quickly, does not have supporting data, and does not consider all stakeholder concerns. The latest Canadian data was not considered,” it adds.
A policy report commissioned by the province says the main intent of having two exits is to allow occupants an alternate means of escape if one exit is blocked.
The province says all new buildings designed under the changes will require safety measures including sprinklers, smoke-management systems and wider stairwells.
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But former Vancouver city councillor Jean Swanson said those measures only work if safety equipment is properly maintained, pointing to the deadly Winters Hotel fire, where sprinklers were out of commission.
She said a recent fire at her own apartment building, which has multiple staircases, drove the point home.
“When our alarm went off I went out in the hall and it was full of smoke and I tried going down to the end to knock on doors to make sure people get out but it was too smokey,” she said.
“Afterwards I realized that if we had to have relied on the staircase at the end, it wouldn’t have worked, we wouldn’t have been able to get out.”
Davidson said those safety concerns are contradicted by decades of experience with single-stair apartments in cities around the world, including nearby Seattle.
“They’ve had this in place for 20-plus years and they’ve been doing these really nice small-scale apartment buildings and there haven’t been any issues.”
Vancouver, which has its own building bylaw, is looking at emulating the new provincial changes.
“This change is a really important one, and one that I would like to expedite,” said Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung.
“It will enable more flexibility in terms of being able to put housing on lots where they wouldn’t have been able to do that before, and also to deliver better quality family-sized units,” said Vancouver City Councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung.
Kirby-Yung said she’ll be bringing a motion to council seeking to implement the change.
-With files from the Canadian Press
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