After a massive fire left 80 residents of an apartment complex in Delta, B.C., homeless, the corporation's mayor says she would like to see a limit on building heights for wood-framed walk-ups.
Most of the three-storey Ridon building at the corner of Nordel Way and Scott Road was destroyed in a fire that began early Tuesday morning and raged for 12 hours. Eight people were rushed to hospital, but no one was seriously hurt.
There were no firewalls or sprinklers in the 50-year-old wood frame building, and firefighters were still soaking up hotspots Wednesday while they searched for the cause of the fire.
Delta's Fire Chief Dan Copeland says that his force can handle fires in wood structures as high as three storeys -- anything higher than that makes rescues risky or even impossible.
"We now have to fight those like a high-rise fire, because our normal ground ladders don't reach to up to the sixth storey," Copeland told CTV News.
That's why Delta Mayor Lois Jackson wants to restrict the height of wood-framed walk-ups to three floors, even though the provincial government has recently given developers the green light to build wood structures as high as six storeys.
"Call me old-fashioned, but wood burns; concrete doesn't," she told CTV News. "I think we have to err on the side of safety when constructing any facilities. I'm very concerned about the idea of constructing structures that are six storeys in height because in 40 years, they're going to be as old as this building was."
But developers like Adera, which is building a four-storey wood-framed complex in Surrey, say fears are being blown out of proportion.
Project supervisor Chris O'Keefe said that stricter building codes requiring sprinklers, firewalls and smoke detectors ensure better safety in new wooden buildings.
"I know with the building inspections and the guidelines we have to follow in today's building code are quite stringent, in terms of public safety," he said. "I feel good about what we do here."
Despite those assurances, the Corporation of Delta will be looking closely at what options are available to restrict the height of wooden walk-ups.
Watch CTV News at Six for a report from Peter Grainger
