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No impact locally for new building code

According to Burns Lake officials the new regulations won’t have much impact on local development or fire protection.

While politicians in at least one B.C. community are angry over regulatory changes they say will increase the cost of providing municipal fire protection, officials here suggest it’s a non-issue.

In 2012, changes in the B.C. Building Code placed fire response time at 10 minutes for the purposes of determining spatial separation requirements for new buildings not equipped with sprinkler systems. The amendments sparked outcry in the Okanagan community of Lake Country last month, where Mayor James Baker suggested they would force municipalities to greatly increase funding for fire protection.

Yet according to Burns Lake officials, the new regulations – which came into effect last December – won’t have much impact on local development or fire protection.

Jim McBride, director of protective services and fire chief for the Village of Burns Lake, says it’s business as usual for the local fire department.

McBride said the B.C. Building Code change won’t force the Burns Lake Volunteer Fire Department to operate differently. At present, according to the fire chief, approximately four minutes elapse between the time a fire alarm is received and the first emergency vehicle leaves the hall on Third Avenue.

The length of time it takes for firefighters to arrive at the scene of a fire can vary greatly based on the time of day, distance, weather conditions, and other factors, he said.

“I believe it (the building code change) is there to wake up the developer, not the fire department, of the necessity to rethink his development, taking into consideration the conditions in which the fire department has to endure to respond in a timely manner,” explained McBride. “The 10 minute factor is there as a recognized minimum time for response, given ideal circumstance and conditions, along with a number of other factors that come to play.”

Local developers probably won’t be hit hard by the building code change, either, says Richard Wainwright, Chief Building Inspector for the Regional District of Bulkley Nechako.

Wainwright explained that the new regulations are designed to prevent the spread of fire from one adjacent building to another by increasing the distance between them. In rural areas served by the Burns Lake Volunteer Fire Department, most lots are five acres in size and side setbacks are five meters (16 feet). These provisions, he says, leave rural property owners with plenty of room to build.

While municipal regulations allow for more dense development, the fire department can likely reach most properties in town within the 10 minute response time.

Wainwright noted that at present, there are plenty of undeveloped lots in town. He added that there don’t appear to be any new subdivisions “in the works” here. As a result, the new building code requirements shouldn’t have much impact on local development.