No sprinklers in seniors home fire

Muskoka Heights retirement home went up in smoke early yesterday. The blaze killed 2 seniors and left 8 other in critical condition. The worst part about this blaze is that the building, which was deemed fire safe had no sprinklers on the inside of it. In his defence the owner of the home, Dean Rushlow said "I have no idea what year the building was built, but ... because it is built many, many years ago, (sprinklers) weren't required back then". Rushlow, unfortunately was correct. Ontario's Fire Protection and Prevention Act for some reason says that "nursing homes less than four-storeys tall aren't required to install sprinklers". Ontario's fire Marshal, Pat Burke was very upset with the matter. He believes that all buildings, regardless of size should have sprinklers installed in the event of a fire. Hopefully Muskoka Heights learned its lesson from this very tragic event.

I think this is a very tragic event, that could have been prevented if the home had taken the necessary safety percussions. Even though the law states that buildings of this size are not required to have sprinklers, the owner should have used common sense and taken the steps required to protect the people he was being paid to look after. Finally I hope other buildings not just senior's homes put safety first, so they can prevent a tragic event such as this from occurring.