National building code change urged in wake of Fort Mac fire

[Severe weather events are becoming more frequent and more difficult to predict, and it’s forcing architects and engineers to rethink how they design buildings, infrastructure and cities. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz]

Why does one house burn while the next still stands?

Why is one reduced to ashes when next door, the lingering smell of smoke is the only reminder in a wildfire’s wake?

Over the past two decades, research into devastating fires such as the one that forced the evacuation of Fort McMurray, Alta., has provided many answers to those questions.

It has also provided possible solutions, some substantial and some quite simple.

Darby Allen, the Fort McMurray fire chief whose crews’ hard work is credited with saving so much of the northern Alberta city from the fire last month, is calling for those measures to be put in place as the community rebuilds.

“It’s going to cost a lot of money to put in and you’ve got to chop down a lot of trees,” Allen told The Canadian Press. “You’re offending a lot of people. You’re affecting a lot of people and the chances of getting something like that through is pretty well zero.

“But when we’ve seen the type of thing we’ve seen here, I think there’s more of a realistic chance of getting that type of thing through.”

Allen suggests a few: building the city farther from the boreal forest that surrounds it; fire-resistant building materials, such as slate or tile for roofs, wire fencing and metal exteriors.

A few weeks ago, for the third time, FireSmart Canada asked the federal government to change the National Building Code of Canada to incorporate measures like the ones cited by Allen.

“We just recently, three weeks ago or a month ago, submitted another submission… requesting that updates to the Canada building code and the provincial building code be implemented in order to facilitate exactly what the fire chief is calling for in Fort McMurray,” says Kelly Johnston, executive director of the non-profit wildfire safety group.

“It’s not the first time.”

The national code is the basis for provincial fire codes, none of which currently require fire-resistant construction or planning.

“The answer we got back is that the Canada building code applies across Canada and not all buildings are in an urban interface area but there should be mechanisms in place that would allow for more stringent building codes in areas of wildfire risk.”

Research has shown many features that affect the fire resistance of a building and community, he says.

There are over 8,000 wildfires in Canada every year, according to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System. They burn an average of 2.1 million hectares annually.

And scientists predict that will continue to increase due to climate change and human activity.

Most wildfires occur in remote areas and they are largely left to burn out, so long as they do not threaten communities.

Often, however, they do pose such a threat.

Up to 90,000 people were forced to flee the path of the Fort McMurray fire. While firefighters managed to save 90 per cent of the city, that still left more than 2,400 homes and businesses severely damaged or destroyed.

“What makes homes the most susceptible to fires is the roof,” Johnston says. “If they’re not fire-rated, typically, wood shake or wood shingle roofs are very, very susceptible to ignition. Having a fire-rated roof significantly reduces that susceptibility.”

Something as simple as single-pane windows or gutters full of pine needles increase the risk.

FireSmart would like to see non-combustible roofing and siding materials and some landscaping requirements to reduce the fuel surrounding structures, in the so-called “home ignition zones.”

“The challenge that some municipalities have is they’re governed by the provincial building code, which is tied to the Canada building code. Currently there are no wildfire-resistant criteria in the building codes,” Johnston says.

“The municipalities are fairly limited in what they can do.”

While 90 per cent of Fort McMurray was saved, it is still one of the largest wildfire disasters ever recorded, and may prove to be the costliest catastrophe in Canadian history.