A coroner's jury has made sweeping recommendations after an inquest into a devastating Ontario retirement home fire that killed four people in 2009.
The 39 recommendations include legislation that would mandate smoke detectors in all retirement home bedrooms, and automatic devices for opening and closing doors throughout all senior care facilities.
The jury also recommended implementing mock evacuation programs and testing fire drills on a regular basis.
The inquest followed a January 2009 fire at the Muskoka Heights Retirement Residence in Orillia, Ont. that killed four people and left six residents critically injured.
The seniors' home did not have sprinklers at the time of the fatal fire.
Muskoka Heights and its administrator were charged $62,500 and $18,750 respectively, for failing to ensure proper fire procedures were in place. These fines remain unpaid.
During the inquest, the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs noted that this was the fourth coroner's jury to call for the installation of automatic sprinklers in nursing and retirement homes.
Since 1980, three other Ontario inquests have recommended the same thing to no avail. Since that time 46 seniors have died as a result of retirement home fires.
"It's just a matter of time if one of these older homes for the aged catches fire and we're looking at a fifth inquest" said Niagara Falls' Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop—one of the fire chiefs pushing for government action.
Peter Crenshaw's mother lived in the Muskoka Heights Retirement Residence at the time of the fire and he says it's a miracle she survived.
"You put them into what you think is a safe facility--somebody is going to look after them, take care of them...and they're not," Crenshaw told CTV News.
The coroner's jury also addressed the issue of enforcement under the Provincial Offences Act.
Under the current act, fire departments are only able to issue tickets for five offences, all pertaining to smoke alarms.
The jury recommended increasing the number of offences, as well as upping the maximum penalty for offenders. The jury also suggested that offenders who don't pay their fines be punished with jail time.
In Ontario, sprinkler systems are only required in long-term care facilities built after 1997. This means that an estimated 4,000 seniors' homes built before 1997 may be vulnerable to fire hazards.
And the problem isn't limited to Ontario. Provinces that do not have their own fire or building codes use national guidelines instead, which do not require seniors' homes built before 1995 to install sprinkler systems.
Only the Atlantic provinces require nursing homes to install sprinklers, something Ontario is now considering.
However, there are challenges in implementing this legislation.
The Ontario Community Safety Minister Madeleine Meilleur said that the cost of installing sprinklers in rural areas must be considered.
With a report from CTV's Omar Sachedina and files from The Canadian Press
