Random Inspections: Why Fire Safety Can’t Fall off Your To-do List

Don’t worry, we promise this story has a happy ending. But it nearly didn’t.

This story also comes with a trigger warning for all condo/building owners, managers, or board members because it describes your nightmare scenario.

Picture this: You’re incredibly busy, as usual. Your to-do list is overflowing. “Fire code/fire safety” is on your list, but it’s constantly being pushed down the list by high-priority tasks and items that seem to roll in daily. You’re doing the best you can, but “Fire code/fire safety” keeps getting usurped nonetheless.

… Then your building has a false alarm. And then, a few days later, you get a surprise inspection from the fire department.?

Triggered yet?

A Cautionary Tale

Again, this story has a happy ending, but it could have easily gone another way if it wasn’t for a chance encounter and a very aggressive referral from one of our existing clients.

FCS was attending The Condo Conference - hosted by CCI & ACMO. There was a married couple that managed separate properties in attendance. The wife was an FCS client. The husband was not, but he had “call FCS” on his to-do list. After months of telling him to call us, the wife literally took the husband by the hand and walked him over to our booth to speak with the FCS team. Introductions were made and so were arrangements to attend the husband’s building in 2 weeks.?

“You certainly can't blame a property manager for having a big to-do list. Everybody has one. I've got many myself,” said Cameron Aplin, the FCS Technical Consultant who met with this client.?

“But the way that the laws are written, the onus that is put on property managers is so high. When it comes to fire and life safety, those to-do list items need to be right at the top and not kicked down.”

In this case, the husband got to check “call FCS” off of his to-do list, which was good. But unfortunately, a lot can happen in two weeks.

His building had a false alarm a few days later, then a surprise visit from the fire department shortly after that. To make matters worse, the fire inspector found issues that typically lead to a notice of violation. Most notably, their fire safety plan was outdated.

The Happy Ending

Typically, happy endings occur at the end of a story. But this one happened in the middle.

Our soon-to-be client hadn’t actually met with us yet, but we had an appointment on the books for the following week. When they mentioned this to the fire inspector, the inspector knew and respected our company. As a result, they said they would not write the property manager up for the outdated fire safety plan. They were not issued a notice of violation.

In a perfect world, the client would have met with us before the false alarm and the surprise inspection. However, in telling the fire inspector that they were meeting with a respected fire safety company like FCS, they proved that they were serious about fire safety.

The client was obviously thrilled that they were able to avoid a notice of violation. But their work wasn’t done yet.

The Next Steps

This client was managing a fairly new high-rise building in Toronto. And, like many new-build managers, they assumed their newer life safety system meant they didn’t need to place any urgency on fire safety or fire code compliance.

“There's the old saying, ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it.’ And so a lot of property managers and condo boards see these things as required maintenance. ‘We'll fix it when we need to.’ In my opinion, you can't treat it that way. It’s preventative maintenance,” said Aplin.

“I often use the adage, you don't change the oil in your car when the engine blows up. You change the oil in your car preventatively to stop it from blowing up.”

The client was particularly surprised that their fire safety plan was outdated. From their perspective, it was just written in 2018. How much could have changed since then?

“Since 2018, the fines have increased for penalties under the fire code and that's one of the first pages in the fire safety plan. And it's one of the first things that fire inspectors look for. We’ve also seen a number of code changes during that time,” said Aplin.

“But as a property manager, unless you know that the Building Code of Ontario changed, why would you think to look at that? It would be unrealistic to expect a property manager to know every law, code, by-law, and legal requirement by heart. Or know when those things change within a short period of time.”

Hand us Your Fire Safety To-Do List

This was a classic case of a property manager simply being too busy to stay on top of his building’s fire safety or code compliance, despite his best efforts. Does this sound familiar??

If so, we can help! Let us worry about Ontario’s changing fire codes and how they will impact your building or your equipment. Don’t wait for a false alarm or a surprise inspection! Start right now by calling 1(800) 281-8863 or by clicking here.