Edmonton fire chief looking for solutions after four homeless people die in fires
CBC
Edmonton Fire Rescue Services (EFRS) Chief Joe Zatylny is looking at an initiative from Surrey, B.C., as a possible solution to preventing fires in vacant and abandoned buildings.
In a year-end interview with CBC News, Zatylny said tackling the issue is one of his priorities for 2022. His list also includes increasing diversity EFRS and looking after the mental health of frontline staff.
Zatylny is concerned about the recent fire-related deaths of four people experiencing homelessness.
Two of the fires were in abandoned and empty buildings.
"We're seeing too many fires in vacant buildings that should be secure," Zatylny said.
"It's as innocent as people trying to stay warm and people just trying to eat. We need to help them and find a way to make sure that those buildings remain secure."
Zatylny said staff are working on a fire safety plan directed at the homeless population.
He's also interested in looking at the Surrey Distressed Properties program that started in 2017 and reduced the number of fires in vacant and abandoned buildings by 94 per cent, according to a report from September 2021.
Under the program, the Surrey Fire Service regularly inspects vacant and derelict buildings.
If a property is deemed to be a fire risk, the service can compel owners to provide better security, demolish or improve the structures within a prescribed period of time. The municipality can deal with non-compliant owners by tearing down the structure and sending them the bill.
Zatylny said Edmonton hasn't looked at this type of measure before but he is interested in exploring it with council and other levels of government.
"Do we have the authority?" he asked. "Is the legislation there to be able to move down this road?
"We believe we're at a time where there's too much risk to the members of the public and our own firefighters…We don't want to lose any more lives in these structures."
Zatylny became fire chief in June 2020 in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the challenges faced by the EFRS is the spike in calls for opioid poisonings.
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