Letters to The Sun, April 30, 2022: Media reports on Winters Hotel fire trouble

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Re: Questions remain over delay in probing for missing resident of Winters Hotel fire

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The recent Gastown fire which destroyed the Winters Hotel was a tragic event that could have easily been prevented. As a risk-control specialist in the insurance industry, I was troubled when I read initial media reports stating that the building was fully sprinkler-protected. When automatic sprinklers are installed and maintained properly, they are extremely effective in controlling fires and we actively promote sprinkler protection in our community to prevent such fires. The Winters Hotel fire should never have spread beyond the initial room of origin.

When subsequent reports revealed that the sprinkler system was shut off due to a previous fire which had occurred “a few days” earlier, unless there were other factors in play, it appears to be a textbook case of mismanagement. Every sprinkler-protected building is required to maintain spare sprinkler heads on site. The sprinkler heads which had been activated in the previous fire, should have been replaced within hours, not days. When sprinkler systems are required to be shut down for an extended period, the fire alarm monitoring company and the fire department are typically notified. Insurance companies should also be notified, but this rarely occurs as owners are not always aware of this policy condition. When insurers are notified, they would follow up to monitor the outage and ensure that the system is returned to service as soon as possible. In the interim, additional security measures are recommended, plus hot work (welding) would be strictly prohibited during the sprinkler system outage. Having additional security in place during a sprinkler system impairment is not the same as having sprinkler systems in full service.

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The insurance risk-control engineering departments often do not have the resources available to survey every single building that they insure. In addition, their risk improvement recommendations do not hold the same weight as those coming from the public fire department, which are deemed mandatory. Furthermore, even if the insurer’s recommendations are not heeded, and fires occur as a result, insurance coverage remains in place. As a result, incentive to comply is not always forward.

Although I recognize that fire departments also have their budgets and limitations and, with all due respect to their profession, I believe their building inspectors should become more involved in human element loss-prevention programs and not just ensuring that fire escape stairwells and means of egress are unobstructed. In addition, there should have been follow-up procedures to determine why the sprinkler system was still shut down for so long after the initial fire.

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Rick Gerbrandt, Vancouver

Don’t play politics with the public good

Re: Public invited to share thoughts on Massey Tunnel replacement plan

The BC Liberals vow to return to their plans for a bridge over the Fraser if elected, reversing the NDP plans for a tunnel, which was a reversal of the BC Liberals original plan to build a bridge.

This to and fro is a good example of policy lurch, one of the negative hallmarks of our present electoral system — “first past the post”.

One government brings in a certain policy, spends time, money and energy to develop it. Gets voted out. The next government ditches the policy and spends time, money and energy developing the policy in a different direction. Loses the next election and the new government goes back to its initial policy, in the process wasting the time money and energy put in by the previous government. What’s good for the public gets lost in politics.

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With “proportional representation,” governments are much more stable, longer lasting, and engage in more cooperation and compromise and don’t play politics with the public good.

Daryl Sturdy, Vancouver

A democratic solution to housing

It seems that a very simple and fair solution to the housing problem would be to rezone every residential lot wider than 50 feet to be a duplex lot. There are many cities such as Toronto and Montreal where whole neighborhoods were developed with modest common-wall, duplexes of two to three bedrooms. That seems fair to everyone and every neighbourhood.

We have to get away from huge homes for a small family or couple, and start to build smaller, affordable, well-built homes to last for generations.

Larry Hill, New Westminster

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