Fire code convictions burn landlords

The owners of two houses on Main Street have pleaded guilty to violating a section of the Ontario Fire Code.

Des Green, of North Bay, and his brother, Daniel, who lives in Toronto, each received suspended sentences and one year’s probation from Justice of the Peace Gilles Lecouteur in Provincial Offences Court Tuesday.

As well they will have to spend about $40,000 to bring the properties, one of which is shown above, in conformation with the fire code.

“We want landlords to know that if they contravene the code, they’ll be charged for committing an offence,” said Randy Vezina, a fire prevention officer with the North Bay Fire Department.

“That’s what people have to start grasping, and what happened in courtroom 301 now validates our effort, because we clearly have the backing of the courts.”

Basic fire requirements didn't exist
The houses had been converted from single-family dwellings into apartments without any input from the fire department, Vezina said.

“Fire safety requirements considered basic didn’t exist,” Vezina said.

“Where there should have been drywall, there was wood panelling and the walls offered no fire resistance at all. The changes they’ve been forced to make will buy people time to get out alive if fire should break out.”

Violations in the houses fall under Sect. 9 of the Ontario Fire Code Retrofit.

Didn't like what he saw
Vezina said the houses first came to the fire department’s attention in January after crews responded to a “minor” call there.

“The captain didn’t like what he saw sent and sent a memo to me to follow up on,” Vezina said.

A few months earlier senior city managers including fire chief Ted McCullough, and managing director of community services Dave Linkie, had given Vezina the go-ahead to start prosecuting fire code violators, “rather than offering them courtesy of time to comply with the law they’d already broken,” Vezina said.

The Main Street houses represented the first instances of the department’s no-nonsense attitude.

Out of our hands
A similar case involving another Main Street building owner, Vezina said, is also before the courts.

Vezina said there are only “a handful” of landlords in the city that don’t take the fire department or fire code as seriously as they should.

“They’re going to have to realize that if they’ve let their building go, they’re the ones who will have to explain to the judge why they didn’t comply. It will be out of our hands."